SOUTH    AMERICA 
TO-DAY 

A   STUDY    OF     CONDITIONS,    SOCIAL 

POLITICAL,  AND  COMMERCIAL 

IN  ARGENTINA,  URUGUAY 

AND  BRAZIL 


BY 

GEORGES    CLEMENCEAU 

FORMERLY   PRIME  MINISTER  OF  FRANCE 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW   YORK  AND  LONDON 

Huifcfccrbocfccr    press 
1911 


COPYRIGHT,  1911 

BV 
G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


TTbe  fmicfcerbocfcer  press,  flew 


INTRODUCTION 

HAVE  been  asked  for  my  impres- 
sions as  a  traveller  in  South 
America.  I  had  no  sooner  pro- 
mised them  than  a  difficulty  pre- 
sented itself.  I  have  no  notes  of  my  journey, 
and  I  should  be  sorry  to  have  them,  for  it  is 
annoying  to  record  impressions  in  black  and 
white  at  the  precise  moment  when  one  feels 
them  most  vividly.  And  I  pass  over  in  silence 
the  hour  when  it  is  wisdom  to  remain  quiet. 

The  task  of  Christopher  Columbus  was  light- 
ened by  one  fact.  America  was  there,  station- 
ary, in  the  middle  of  the  sea,  only  waiting  for 
some  one  to  knock  against  it.  I  even  found  in 
Brazil  an  eminent  Senator  for  the  State  of  &UuL 
B*»i,  Senor  Almeida  Nogueira,  who  declared 
that  the  principal  event  of  that  Friday,  October 
12th,  was  the  discovery — by  the  original  Ameri- 
cans— of  Europe  in  the  person  of  the  great 
Genoese.  They  had  this  advantage  over  him — 
they  had  not  left  their  homes. 

iii 


228512 


iv  INTRODUCTION 

What  was  I  going  to  discover  in  my  turn,  at 
the  risk  of  being  myself  discovered? — unknown 
countries? — unheard-of  peoples? — virgin  civilisa- 
tions?— or  simply  points  of  comparisons  for  new 
judgments  on  myself  and  on  my  country? 

Our  self-satisfaction  will  not  allow  us  readily 
to  admit  that  we  have  anything  to  learn  from 
young  communities,  though  we  are  too  ready 
to  talk  in  generalities  about  them.  "We  cannot 
deny,  however,  that  their  effort  is  fine,  and  tends 
continually  toward  success. 

In  such  a  result  the  least  quick-sighted  of  us 
must  be  interested.  Facility  of  communication 
has  multiplied  the  points  of  contact  between 
the  men  of  every  country.  One  of  our  first 
needs  is  to  correct  the  vague  or  false  concep- 
tions of  the  different  human  societies  borne  by 
this  globe  in  a  tumult  of  joy  and  misery  towards 
destinies  unknown. 

Because  there  was  no  one  to  contradict  them, 
travellers  of  ancient  times  were  able  to  give  full 
play  to  their  wildest  imaginings.  A  proverb 
even  sanctions  their  lack  of  veracity.  When 
our  good  Herodotus  related  that  the  army  of 
Xerxes  dried  up  the  rivers  on  its  passage,  the 


INTRODUCTION 


Athenians,  perhaps,  were  not  astonished.  Chris- 
topher Columbus  himself  died  in  ignorance  of 
the  continent  on  which  he  had  landed,  convinced 
that  he  had  reached  the  east  coast  of  Asia. 
To-day  it  is  another  matter.  From  the  Poles 
to  the  torrid  zone  are  at  work  innumerable  ex- 
plorers who  only  succeed  painfully  in  discover- 
ing the  new  at  the  price  of  being  verified  by 
their  rivals.  The  incidents  which  accompanied 
the  probable  discovery  of  the  North  Pole  by 
Commander  Peary  showed  the  danger  of  rash 
assertions,  even  when  denial  seemed  only  pos- 
sible from  seals  and  white  bears. 

I  enjoy,  happily,  the  great  advantage  of  hav- 
ing discovered  nothing.  And,  as  I  am  less  am- 
bitious of  astonishing  my  contemporaries  than 
of  suggesting  reflections  by  the  way,  I  shall 
perhaps  escape  offending  the  susceptibilities  of 
those  formidable  savants  who,  having  theorised 
upon  everything,  can  only  see  everything  from 
the  standpoint  of  their  studies.  Statisticians 
had  better  avoid  me;  I  have  nothing  to  tell 
them.  Having  no  preconceived  notions,  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  make  facts  square  with  them. 
Having  in  mind  Voltaire's  expression  that  the 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

most  mischievous  ignorance  is^that  of  the  critic, 
I  confess  that  my  own  criticism  of  old  civilisa- 
tions makes  me  indulgent  towards  new  experi- 
ments outside  Europe. 

I  am  of  my  time  and  my  country,  and  at  the 
end  of  a  long  career  I  submit  with  equanimity 
to  the  public  the  opinions  and  judgments  I  have 
gained.  I  do  not  share  the  prejudices  current 
in  Paris  against  the  suburban  dwellers  of  Villers- 
sur-Marne  or  St.  Cloud.  Our  comic  journals 
and  our  plays  have  inflicted  the  same  kind  of 
torture  upon  the  South  Americans.  Having 
ridiculed  them  for  so  long,  has  not  the  moment 
come  when  we  should  study  them,  not  merely 
to  flatter  ourselves  at  their  expense,  but  as  a 
people  who,  more  than  any  other,  are  our  intel- 
lectual children,  and  to  ask  ourselves  whether 
we  cannot  sometimes  learn  something  from 
them? 

It  is  not  in  three  months  that  one  gets  de- 
finite ideas  as  to  the  future  of  these  vast  terri- 
tories, where  a  work  of  civilisation  is  going  on 
which  will  inevitably  change  the  political  and 
social  equilibrium  of  the  planet  that  to-day  is 
still,  in  effect,  European.  It  is  always  difficult 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

to  report  faithfully  what  one  has  seen,  for  there 
is  an  art  in  seeing  as  in  telling.  Without  claim- 
ing to  have  achieved  it,  I  venture  to  hope  that 
my  observations,  impartially  recorded,  will  bear 
the  seal  of  good  faith  and  be  of  some  use  to 
the  reader. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  towns  of  South  America, 
though  some  of  them  are  very  fine  and  well 
laid  out,  cannot,  by  reason  of  their  recent  his- 
tory, offer  monuments  comparable  with  those  of 
Europe.  One  not  infrequently  hears  a  remark 
of  this  sort :  "  Have  you  seen  that  old  church 
over  there?  It  is  at  least  forty  or  fifty  years 
old !  "  The  towns  derive  their  chief  interest 
from  their  situation  and  surroundings;  their  in- 
ternal features  are  only  those  which  Europe  has 
been  pleased  to  send  them  in  superabundance. 
There  remain  the  land  and  the  people,  two 
worthy  subjects  of  study.  The  land,  rich  in  un- 
developed forces,  calls  for  new  energies.  As  it 
only  becomes  valuable  through  human  labour, 
everything  depends  upon  man's  activity.  In  the 
depth  of  his  soul,  at  once  ingenuous  and  com- 
plex, are  inscribed  all  the  mysteries  of  the  past, 
all  the  secrets  of  the  future. 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

Admitting  that  American  civilisation  is  of 
recent  origin,  it  must  be  said  that  the  American 
peoples,  far  from  suffering  from  growing  pains, 
as  we  are  fond  of  imagining,  are  really  old  races 
transplanted.  Like  us,  they  bend  under  the 
weight  of  a  heavy  history  of  glory  and  human 
suffering;  they  are  imbued  with  all  our  tradi- 
tions, good  or  bad;  and  they  are  subject  to  the 
same  difficulties,  whilst  manifesting  their  vital 
energies  in  an  environment  better  adapted  to 
their  display. 

Then,  again,  let  us  not  fail  to  distinguish 
between  Latin  America  of  the  South  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  America  of  the  North.  Let  us  refrain  as 
well  from  generalities,  sometimes  unjustifiable, 
regarding  the  parallel  development  of  two  orders 
of  civilisation,  and  the  future  destinies  which, 
in  hours  of  crisis,  may  appear  uncertain,  of  old 
historic  races. 

I  shall  deal  only  with  Latin  America,  with- 
out, however,  losing  sight  of  the  great  Republic 
of  the  North,  where  I  lived  nearly  four  years. 
Since  neither  Jefferson  nor  Washington  fore- 
saw the  economic  evolution  which,  in  a  little 
more  than  a  hundred  years,  was  to  be  realised 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

by  their  infant  Republic,  it  behoves  me  to  be 
modest  in  my  prophecies.  But,  if  I  firmly  be- 
lieve that,  in  spite  of  the  "  historic  materialism  " 
of  Karl  Marx,  commercial  interests  are  not  the 
only  factors  in  civilisation;  if  I  take  from  an 
eminent  writer  in  Brazil,  Senor  Arinos  de  Mello, 
the  curious  information  that  in  1780,  at  1400 
kilometres  from  the  coast,  at  the  house  of  his 
great-grandfather,  who  had  never  seen  the  ocean, 
a  company  of  amateurs  played  the  tragedies  of 
Voltaire — I  must  conclude  that  the  influence  of 
Ideas,  inherited  from  our  forefathers,  is  not  less 
certain  or  durable  than  that  of  international 
trade  relations.  This  I  say  with  no  intention 
of  depreciating  the  importance  of  such  com- 
merce as,  even  at  that  time,  served  as  the 
vehicle  of  Ideas — just  as  the  good  sailing  ship 
transported  a  copy  of  Voltaire's  Herope  or 
Mahomet  from  Rotterdam  to  Pernambuco,  and 
a  train  of  mules  took  a  month  to  complete  the 
journey.  It  should  remind  us  that  moral  in- 
fluences are  not  inferior  in  results  to  monetary 
affairs. 

We  French  have  allowed  ourselves  to  be  out- 
stripped  in  economic  matters  at  too  many  points 


INTRODUCTION 


of  the  globe.  Yet,  notwithstanding  our  mis- 
takes, our  eighteenth  century — with  the  Revolu- 
tion which  was  its  inevitable  outcome — has 
constituted  for  us  a  patrimony  of  moral  author- 
ity which  we  should  seek  not  only  to  preserve, 
but  also,  if  possible,  to  enlarge. 

G.  C. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION .    iii 

CHAPTER 

I.  THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE    ....      1 

II.  MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES    .        .     18 

III.  BUENOS  AYRES  (Continued)     .        .        .48 

IV.  FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA  .        .     81 

V.    ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS,  AND 

ASYLUMS 109 

VI.  ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  AND  MORALS  142 

VII.  ARGENTINE   POLITICS        ....  175 

VIII.    PAMPAS  LIFE 204 

IX.  FARMING  AND  SPORT        ....  233 

X.      ROSARIO   AND    TUCUMAN     ....   257 

XI.  URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS  .    .    .  289 

xi 


xii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGB 

XII.  Kio  DE  JANEIRO  .....  316 

XIII.  BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  .  .  352 

XIV.  BRAZILIAN  COFFEE 389 

INDEX  .  .  .  427 


SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 


South.  America  To-Day 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE 

HE  Regina  Elena  is  in  harbour.  A 
great  white  boat  vomits  volumes 
of  black  smoke  from  its  two  fun- 
nels, whilst  the  siren  sounds  the 
familiar  farewell.  Two  gangways,  on  which 
luggage  and  passengers  are  jostling  desperately, 
present  the  peculiar  spectacle  of  departing 
crowds.  On  a  dais  of  multi-coloured  sunshades, 
the  wide  hats  of  beautiful  Genoese  women  offer 
their  good  wishes  to  the  little  veiled  toques 
of  the  travellers.  People  stop  in  the  narrowest 
part  of  the  gangway  to  laugh  and  cry  together. 
Vainly  the  human  flood  tries  to  break  through 
the  obstacle.  The  current,  according  to  its 
strength,  carries  the  living  mass  of  feathers  and 


2  '  -SdTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

ribbons  back  to  the  landing-place  or  pushes  it 
on  to  the  deck,  where,  in  a  perfect  maze  of  move- 
ment and  exclamations,  it  continues  to  stop  the 
traffic. 

Not  far  away,  heavily  laden  with  nondescript 
burdens,  the  silent  emigrant  forces  his  way  to 
the  lower  deck,  dragging  old  parents  and  young 
children  after  him.  Do  not  imagine  the  emi- 
grant leaving  Italy  for  the  Argentine  to  be  the 
miserable  human  specimen  one  generally  sees. 
He  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  workman 
moving  from  one  hemisphere  to  another.  We 
shall  meet  him  again  on  board.  Strongly  at- 
tached to  family  life,  his  peculiarity  is  to  move 
about  with  his  wife  and  progeny.  The  dif- 
ference in  seasons  allows  him,  a&er  cutting  corn 
on  the  Pampas,  to  return  toJLtaly  for  the  har- 
vest. Often  he  settles  down  in  the  Argentine 
under  the  conditions  which  I  shall  explain  later, 
and  takes  strong  root  there.  Often,  again,  the 
love  of  his  native  land  speaks  louder  than  his 
love  of  adventure,  and  the  steamship  companies 
are  glad  to  profit  by  the  circumstance. 

The  siren  has  blown  its  last  authoritative 
blast;  the  last  visitors  have  returned  to  land; 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE 


the  huge  monster  glides  gently  out  to  sea.  One 
sees  nothing  but  waving  handkerchiefs  and 
hears  nothing  but  parting  words.  We  are  off. 
"  Good-bye."  The  grand  amphitheatre  of  white 
marble  and  sunburnt  stones  glides  slowly  past 
us,  dazzling  in  the  warm  light.  Already  our 
eyes  were  looking  with  curiosity  and  hopeful- 
ness towards  the  liquid  plain.  Are  we  flying 
from  Europe,  or  is  Europe  flying  from  us? 
From  this  moment  we  shall  look  to  see 
America  surge  up  from  the  horizon  on  the  day 
ordained. 

The  first  impressions  of  the  boat  are  excellent : 
it  is  admirably  fitted  up;  clean  as  a  new  pin, 
with  good  attendance.  We  are  welcomed  in  a 
most  charming  manner  by  the  Captain,  de  Bene- 
detti,  a  galant  'uomo,  who  advertises  his  French 
sympathies  by  flying  a  French  flag.  A  fortnight 
in  a  handsome  moving  prison,  with  floods  of 
salt  air  to  fill  one's  lungs,  and  the  marvellous 
panorama  of  sky  and  sea,  shot  with  luminous 
arrows.  Our  daily  promenades  are  those  of 
prisoners  condemned  to  walk  in  an  eternal  cir- 
cle. As  long  as  land  is  in  sight,  our  eyes  linger 
on  the  blue  line  of  mountains,  which  speaks  to 


SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 


us  of  the  country  which,  in  spite  of  the  revolving 
screw,  our  hearts  refuse  to  leave. 

The  Ligurian  coast,  crowned  by  Alpine 
heights;  Provence,  rich  in  memories,  blue 
mountains  darkened  by  the  dying  day;  grey 
spots,  which  represent  Toulon  and  Marseilles. 
A  choppy,  rather  rough  sea,  complicated  by 
a  ground  swell,  as  we  cross  the  Bay  of  Lyons, 
tries  the  ladies,  who  had  hitherto  been  very 
lively.  They  retire  to  their  cabins,  whence  issue 
sinister  sounds. 

But  let  us  pass  on.  To-morrow's  sun  will 
illumine  the  joyous  hospitality  of  Barcelona. 

Never  did  land  look  so  fascinating  to  me.  I 
have  crossed  the  Atlantic  eight  times  without 
ever  feeling  that  kind  of  anticipated  regret  for 
the  old  Continent.  Youth  longs  for  the  Un- 
known, but  age  learns  to  fear  it. 

The  passengers  lunched  on  shore.  Then  came 
a  visit  i^j&Q  Rambla,  sad  and  deserted  under 
the  grey  sky.  We  linger  over  our  first  let- 
ters home,  which  can  neither  be  called  letters 
from  abroad  nor  letters  of  farewell.  A  cab  car- 
ries us  about  in  a  haphazard  way,  past  modern 
houses  which  are  a  disgrace  to  Spain  and  our 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE 


epoch,  and  past  facades  of  convents  burnt  down 
in  the  last  revolution.  Finally,  we  are  driven 
back  to  the  quay,  where,  since  morning,  a  crowd 
of  fruit-sellers,  picturesquely  attired  in  red  and 
yellow,  have  been  selling  their  wares  to  the  emi- 
grants, forbidden  by  the  regulations  to  land  at  the 
ports  of  call.  Nets  attached  to  long  poles,  filled 
with  provisions  of  all  sorts,  are  offered  to  the  pas- 
sengers on  the  lower  decks  and  held  at  a  safe 
distance  until  the  sum,  which  has  been  volubly 
disputed,  falls  into  the  outstretched  apron  below. 

But  the  signal  is  given.  The  teeming  market 
disappears,  and,  without  more  ado,  we  put  out 
to  sea.  In  the  dusk  of  the  evening  we  discern 
the  white  summits  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  in 
whose  shadow  lie  Granada  and  the  Alhambra. 
We  shall  pass  Gibraltar  in  the  night,  and  at 
dawn  to-morrow  we  shall  have  only  the  blue 
monotony  of  the  infinite  sea. 

It  is  five  days'  steam  to  St.  Vincent,  in  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands.  The  passengers  shake 
down,  grouping  themselves  according  to  na- 
tional or  professional  affinities.  Stretched  on 
arm-chairs  of  excessive  size — which  turn  the 
daily  walk  into  a  steeplechase — fair  ladies, 


6  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

wrapped  in  shawls  and  gauzes,  and  profoundly 
indifferent  to  the  comfort  of  others,  try  to  read, 
but  only  succeed  in  yawning.  They  chatter 
aimlessly  without  real  conversation.  The  cries 
of  the  children  create  a  diversion,  and  a  badly- 
trained  dog  is  a  fruitful  topic  for  discussion. 
The  men  sit  down  to  bridge,  or  smoke  innumer- 
able pipes  in  the  Winter  Garden.  I  catch  scraps 
of  business  talk  around  me. 

The  boldest  foot  it  on  the  deck,  but  their 
enterprise  does  not  please  the  gentler  passengers, 
who  are  in  quiet  possession  of  the  only  space 
available  for  exercise.  Soon,  under  the  guise 
of  sops  to  the  ravenous  ocean  appetite,  piles  of 
plates,  glasses,  and  decanters,  complicated  with 
stools  and  travelling  rugs,  encumber  the  pas- 
sageway. As  the  soft  roll  of  the  ship  causes 
a  certain  disturbance  of  the  crockery,  the 
pedestrian,  young  or  old,  has  always  a  chance 
of  breaking  his  leg — a  contingency  to  which 
the  ladies  appear  to  be  perfectly  indifferent. 
The  piano  suffers  cruelly  from  sharp  raps 
administered  by  knotty  juvenile  fingers.  An 
Italian  lady  sings,  and  one  of  my  own  country- 
women sketches  a  group  of  emigrants. 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE 


In  the  primitive  setting  of  the  steerage  every- 
body is  already  at  home  and  appears  happy. 
Attentive  fathers  walk  and  play  with  their  off- 
spring and  occasionally  smack  them  by  way  of 
showing  them  the  right  path.  Mothers  are 
nursing  their  babies  or  washing  clothes.  I  am 
told  that  there  are  no  fewer  than  twenty-six 
nursing  mothers  out  of  a  total  of  six  hundred 
third-class  passengers  on  board.  Amid  the 
Italian  swarm,  brightly  coloured  groups  of 
Syrians  stand  out.  The  women,  tattooed, 
painted,  and  clad  in  light-coloured  draperies, 
sometimes  covered  with  silver  ornaments,  fall 
naturally  into  the  dignified  and  statuesque  pose 
of  the  Oriental.  A  few  are  really  handsome, 
with  a  sort  of  passive  sensuality  of  bearing.  It 
is  said  that  the  Syrians  are  the  licensed  pedlars 
of  the  Pampas. 

A  visit  between  decks  shows  that  the  ventila- 
tion is  good  and  TJfaL cleanliness  is  insured  by 
incessant  application  of  brush  and  hose.  The 
sick  bay  is  well  kept.  One  or  two  patients  are 
in  the  maternity  ward  awaiting  an  interesting 
event  before  the  Equator  can  be  reached.  The 
food  is  wholesome  and  abundant.  The  Italian 


8  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Government  keeps  a  permanent  official  on  board 
who  is  independent  of  the  officers  of  the  ship, 
and  sees  that  the  regulations  concerning  hy- 
giene and  safety  for  this  class  of  passengers 
are  rigorously  carried  out.  Frightful  abuses  in 
former  days  necessitated  these  measures,  which 
are  now  entirely  efficacious. 

We  are  looking  forward  to  calling  at  St. 
Vincent  as  a  welcome  break  in  the  monotony 
of  our  days.  However,  thanks  to  wireless  tele- 
graphy, we  are  no  longer  cut  off  from  the  world 
on  this  highly  perfected  raft  which  balances  our 
fortunes  between  heaven  and  sea.  One  cannot 
help  feeling  surprised  when  presented  with  an 
envelope  bearing  the  word  "  Telegram."  Some 
one  has  sent  me  his  good  wishes  for  the  voy- 
age from  France  by  way  of  Dakar.  Then  by 
the  same  mysterious  medium  the  passengers  of 
a  ship  we  shall  meet  to-morrow  wave  their  hats 
to  us  in  advance.  On  several  occasions  I  have 
had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  messages  of  this 
sort;  they  are  incidents  in  a  day.  From  time 
to  time  we  can  read  the  despatches  of  the  news 
agencies  posted  in  the  saloon.  I  leave  you  to 
imagine  how,  with  our  abundant  leisure,  we  dis- 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE  9 

cuss  the  news.  From  St.  Vincent  to  the  island 
of  Fernando  de  Noronha,  the  advanced  post  of 
Brazil,  I  do  not  think  we  were  ever  more  than 
two  days  out  of  range  of  wireless  telegraphy. 
When  it  is  compulsory  to  have  a  wireless  in- 
stallation on  board  all  ships,  collisions  at  sea 
can  never  occur.  I  visit  the  telegraph  office 
situated  forward  on  the  upper  deck.  It  is  a 
small  cabin  where  an  employee  sits  all  day  strik- 
ing sparks  from  his  machine  as  messages  arrive 
from  all  parts  of  the  horizon;  the  sound  re- 
minds me  of  the  crackling  of  a  distant  mitrail- 
leuse. Here  one  must  not  allow  the  mind  to 
wander  even  with  the  smoke  of  one's  cigarette. 
Through  a  technical  blunder  our  unfortunate 
telegraphist,  without  knowing  it,  sent  the  in- 
formation to  Montevideo  that  we  were  in  danger. 
In  consequence,  we  learnt  from  the  newspapers 
on  our  arrival  that  the  Government  was  send- 
ing a  State  ship  to  our  help.  We  thus  experi- 
enced the  sweet  sensation  of  peril  without 
danger,  whilst  the  employee  guilty  of  the  error 
found  himself  discharged. 

We  shall  not  profit  by  the  call  at  St.  Vincent, 
since  we  arrive  in  the  night.     It  is  in  vain  that 


10  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

they  tell  us  that  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  are 
nothing  but  a  series  of  arid,  yellow  rocks;  that 
St.  Vincent  can  only  show  commonplace  houses 
and  cabins  with  the  inevitable  cocoanut-trees ; 
that  the  "  town  "  is  only  inhabited  by  negroes 
who  pick  up  a  living  from  the  ships  that  put 
in  here  to  coal;  whilst  the  English  coal  import- 
ers and  real  masters  of  this  Portuguese  posses- 
sion live  up  in  the  hills.  Nevertheless,  we  are 
disappointed  of  an  opportunity  to  stroll  on  shore 
towards  a  clump  of  trees,  apparently  planted 
there  with  the  object  of  justifying  the  name  of 
the  place,  which  is  in  reality  the  most  barren 
spot. 

On  our  way  we  had  passed  the  denuded  rocks 
which  somebody  tells  us  are,,  called  the  Canaries. 
St.  Vincent,  it  seems,  is  a  second  edition  of  the 

Canaries — only  more  sterile.     We  have  no  diffi- 

"~     ~~" 
culty    in    believing    it   when    at    nightfall    the 

_Jtegina  Elena  stops  at  the  bottom  of  a  deep 
black  hole  dotted  with  distant  lights,  of  which 
some  are  fixed  to  the  bows  of  small  craft  or 
tugboats  drawing  coal  lighters,  which  dance  up 
to  us  on  the  waves. 

Suddenly,  as  in  the  third  act  of  L'Africaine, 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE  11 

under  the  orders  of  an  invisible  Nelusko,  we  are 
invaded  on  the  starboard  and  port  side  by  a 
dual  horde  of  savages.  They  are  fearful-looking 
blacks,  with  grinning  masks,  clothed  in  coal- 
dust,  who  swarm  like  monkeys  up  the  shrouds 
and  fall  on  deck  with  the  laugh  of  cannibals. 
We  are  assured  that  our  lives  are  not  in  danger, 
and,  in  fact,  they  are  no  sooner  amongst  us 
than,  attacked  with  sudden  shyness,  they  offer 
in  a  low  voice  and  in  a  language  in  which 
French  and  English  are  strangely  mixed,  an 
assortment  of  cocoanuts,  bananas,  and  bags 
made  of  melon  seeds,  to  which  they  seem  to 
attach  great  importance. 

Once  more  we  fall  back  on  the  small  events 
of  our  daily  life  on  board,  of  which  the  prin- 
cipal is  to  find  the  point  in  the  southern  horizon 
by  which  the  speed  of  the  ship  can  be  calculated, 
under  given  conditions  of  wind  and  tide.  On 
the  New  York  crossing,  the  Americans  make 
of  this  detail  an  excuse  for  a  daily  bet.  I  notice 
that  the  South  Americans  are  less  addicted  to 
this  form  of  sport.  The  first  impression  made 
upon  me  by  these  South  American  families  with 
whom  I  am  thrown  in  daily  contact  is  eminently 


12  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

favourable.  Simplicity,  dignity,  and  gracious- 
ness  are  what  I  see :  I  find  none  of  the  extrava- 
gance ascribed  to  them  by  rumour.  Only  on 
one  point  am  I  led  to  make  a  criticism:  their 
children  seem  to  enjoy  the  utmost  license  of 
speech  and  action. 

Henceforth  our  only  subject  of  conversation 
is  the  probable  date  on  which  we  shall  cross 
the  Equator.  The  Regina  Elena,  with  a  dis- 
placement of  10,000  tons,  did  17  knots  on  her 
trials.  If  she  makes  14  or  15  now,  we  are  satis- 
fied. The  sea  is  calm:  not  a  stomach  protests. 
In  these  latitudes  the  storms  of  the  North 
Atlantic  are  unknown.  We  shall  make  the 
crossing  from  Barcelona  to  Buenos  Ayres  in 
fifteen  or  sixteen  days.  A  long  rest  for  any  one 
leaving  or  seeking  a  life  of  excitement. 

We  amuse  ourselves  by  watching  troops  of 
dolphins,  divine  creatures,  passing  from  the  joys 
of  the  air  to  those  of  the  sea  with  a  facile  grace. 
What  legends  have  been  created  about  these 
mammals!  From  the  most  ancient  times  they 
have  been  the  friends  of  the  seafarer!  They 
save  the  shipwrecked,  and  surrender  to  the 
charms  of  music.  According  to  Homeric  song. 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE  13 

it  was  from  the  dolphin  that  Apollo  borrowed 
the  disguise  in  which  he  led  the  Cretan  fisher- 
men to  the  shores  of  Delphi,  where  later  his 
temple  was  built.  How  true  to  life  is  the  un- 
dulating line  of  the  bas-reliefs  on  the  monument 
of  Lysicrates,  in  which  the  Tyrrhenian  pirates, 
transformed  into  dolphins,  fling  themselves  into 
the  ocean,  as  though  in  feverish  haste  to  try 
a  new  life!  Souvenirs  of  this  old  tale  surge  in 
my  brain  until  I  hear  a  voice  saying  harshly: 
"  All  these  filthy  beasts  ought  to  be  killed  with 
dynamite,  for  they  destroy  the  nets  of  the  fisher- 
men. Good-bye  to  poetic  legend!  Friendship 
between  man  and  the  dolphin  ends  in  utilitarian 
holocausts ! 

Civilisation  has  not  yet  stamped  out  the  fly- 
ing-fish. It  is  still  left  to  us  to  enjoy  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  great  sea-locusts  in  flight,  rising  in 
flocks  into  the  air  to  escape  from  their  greedy 
comrades  in  the  water,  and  dappling  the  wide 
blue  plain  with  their  winged  whiteness.  They 
remind  me  of  the  story  of  the  traveller  who 
was  readily  believed  when  he  declared  he  had 
found  at  the  bottom  of  the  Red  Sea  a  horseshoe 
belonging  to  the  cavalry  of  Pharaoh  swallowed 


14  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

up  in  their  pursuit  of  the  Hebrews.  But  when 
he  talked  of  flying-fish,  he  found  no  credence 
anywhere!  It  is  true  men  have  told  so  many 
tales  that  it  is  not  easy  to  know  when  it  is 
safe  to  show  surprise. 

A  daily  increasing  and  heavy  heat  meets  us 
as  we  draw  near  the  Line.  Light  flannel  suits 
are  brought  into  requisition,  and  breathing  be- 
comes difficult  to  redundant  flesh.  We  are  in 
the  Black  Pot — skies  low,  heavy  with  iron-grey 
clouds;  an  intermittent,  fine  rain  which  cools 
nothing;  a  glassy  sea;  no  breeze  stirring.  It 
feels  like  the  interior  of  a  baker's  oven.  We 
take  refuge  in  the  dangerous  electric  fan  which 
is  unequalled  for  adding  a  bad  cold  to  the  dis- 
agreeable sensation  of  suffocation. 

Nothing  remains  of  the  famous  ceremony  of 
christening  the  passenger  who  crosses  the  Line 
for  the  first  time.  The  innocent  performance  is 
now  converted  into  a  ball,  with  a  subscription 
for  the  crew.  Passengers  on  the  lower  deck 
waltz  every  evening  with  far  less  ceremony,  to 
the  strains  of  an  accordion,  varying  the  enter- 
tainment by  playing  at  Horra,  the  national 
game.  They  stand  up  in  couples  and  aim  ter- 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE  15 

rifle  blows  at  each  other's  faces,  accompanying 
the  movement  with  savage  cries.  If  you  watch 
carefully  you  will  find  that  in  this  game  of 
fisticuffs  the  closed  hand  is  stopped  just  in  time 
and,  at  the  same  moment,  a  certain  number  of 
fingers  are  shot  out.  Simultaneously  a  voice 
cries  a  number,  always  less  than  ten;  and  the 
game  consists  in  trying  to  announce  beforehand 
how  many  fingers  have  been  pointed  by  the  two 
partners.  This  sport,  which  has  the  advantage 
of  requiring  none  but  Nature's  implements,  is  a 
great  favourite  with  the  Italians.  Often,  in  the 
early  morning,  from  my  berth,  I  used  to  hear 
an  alarming  barking  in  the  direction  of  the  bows, 
which  seemed  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  deadly 
quarrel,  but  was  in  reality  merely  the  fun  of 
the  Morra. 

Brazilian  territory  is  now  in  sight — Fernando 
de  Noronha.  It  is  a  volcanic  island  three  days  off 
Rio  de  Janeiro.  Successive  streams  of  lava  have 
given  strangely  jagged  outlines  to  the  peaks. 
A  wide  opening  in  the  mountain  lets  in  a  view 
of  the  shining  sea  on  the  other  side  of  the 
island.  Three  lofty  poles  of  wireless  telegraphy 
stand  out  among  the  foliage.  They  say  that 


16  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

these  posts  were  set  there  by  Frenchmen. 
Goodluck  to  them! 

Captain  de  Benedetti  pays  me  the  compliment 
of  celebrating  the  Fourteenth  of  July.  The 
Queen's  portrait  is  framed  in  the  flags  of  the 
two  nations.  In  the  evening  we  have  cham- 
pagne and  drink  healths.  An  Italian  senator, 
Admiral  de  Brochetti,  expresses,  in  well-chosen 
language,  his  appreciation  of  the  friendship  of 
France  and  I  echo  his  good  wishes  for  the  sister 
nation. 

Is  there  any  better  relief  from  the  exhaustion 
of  a  sleepless  night  in  the  tropics  than  a  solitary 
walk  beneath  the  starry  firmament  of  the  South- 
ern Hemisphere?  Naturally,  I  sought  the  South- 
ern Cross  as  soon  as  it  had  risen  above  the 
horizon.  It  was  another  disillusionment  caused 
by  an  inflated  reputation.  Where  are  ye,  O 
Great  Bear  and  Pleiades,  and  where  the  Belt 
of  Orion?  On  the  other  hand,  words  fail  to 
describe  the  Alpha  of  Argo.  Every  morning, 
between  three  and  four  o'clock,  I  see  on  the  port 
side  a  sort  of  huge  blue  diamond  which  appears 
to  lean  out  of  the  celestial  vault  towards  the 
black  gulf  of  the  restless  sea  as  if  to  illumine 


THE  OUTWARD  VOYAGE  17 

its  abysses.  I  receive  the  most  powerful  sen- 
sation of  living  light  that  the  firmament  has 
ever  given  to  me.  If  there  is  in  any  part  of 
infinite  space  a  prodigious  altar  of  celestial  fire, 
that  focus  must  be  Canopus.  It  was  assuredly 
there  that  Prometheus  stole  the  heavenly  spark 
with  which  he  kindled  in  us  the  light  of  life. 
There,  too,  Vesta  watches  over  the  eternal 
hearth  of  sacred  fire  in  which  is  concentrated 
a  more  divine  splendour  than  even  that  of  a 
tropical  sun. 

But  now  the  earth  calls  us  back  to  herself, 
or,  rather,  it  is  the  stormy  ocean  that  rouses 
us,  for  as  we  approach  the  immense  estuary  of 
La  Plata  a  tempest  of  icy  wind  blows  suddenly 
upon  us  from  the  south.  This  is  the  pampero, 
the  south  wind,  the  wind  from  the  Pampas, 
which  blows  straight  from  the  frozen  tops  of 
the  Andes.  A  heavy  swell  makes  the  Regina 
Elena  roll  in  the  great  yellow  waves,  for  al- 
ready the  clay  of  the  Kio  de  la  Plata  is  per- 
ceptible in  the  sea  and  gives  it  the  aspect  of 
a  vast  ocean  of  mud.  To-morrow  morning  we 
shall  be  in  Montevideo. 


CHAPTER  II     v  -fc^/, 

MONTEVIDEO    AND  ^BUENOS    AYRES 

[HROUGH  the  vaporous  atmosphere 
of  the  sky-line  appear  the  serrated 
edges  of  Montevideo,  the  capital 
of  Uruguay,  which  was  formerly 
a  province  of  the  Argentine,  but  is  to-day  an 
independent  republic.  In  the  current  language 
of  Buenos  Ayres,  Uruguay  is  known  simply  as 
"  the  Oriental  Band,"  and  when  you  hear  it  said 
of  any  one  that  "  he  is  an  Oriental,"  know  that 
by  this  term  is  not  meant  a  Turk  or  a  Levantine, 
but  the  inhabitant  of  the  smallest  republic  in 
South  America,  hemmed  in  between  the  left  bank 
of  the  Uruguay,  Brazil,  and  the  sea. 

Quite  apart  from  the  question  of  size,  the 
Argentine  and  Uruguay  have  too  much  in  com- 
mon not  to  be  jealous  of  each  other.  The 
Argentines  would  appear  to  think  that  the  pro- 
digious development  of  their  country  must  ulti- 

18 


MONTEVIDEOlAND  BUENOS  A7RES   19 
jiin        1 

mately  have  the  effect  of  bringing  back  Uruguay 
to  the  fold.  This  may  be  so ;  but  it  is  also  quite 
possible  that  the  "  Oriental  Band  "  in  her  pride 
will  continue  to  cherish  her  independence. 
Meantime,  while  leaving  to  the  future  the  solu- 
tion of  the  question,  there  is  a  little  friction 
between  them.  Uruguay's  revolutionary  shocks 
usually  originate  in^Argentine  territory,  across 
the  river.  The  Argentine  Government  is  cer- 
tainly averse  to  any  leniency  towards  those  who 
incite  to  civil  war,  but  it  is  not  always  able 
to  exact  obedience.  South  American  ways!  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  leaders  of 
an  unsuccessful  party  are  wont  to  take  refuge 
in  Buenos  Ayres — ten  hours  distant  by  the  fine 
boats  on  the  estuary — and  that  the  natural 
magnet  of  commercial  prosperity  enlarges  this 
political  nucleus  by  the  powerful  factor  of 
trade.  There  are  no  less  than  fifty  thousand 
Orientals l  in  the  Argentine  capital,  and  the 
daily  traffic  between  the  two  cities  may  be 
judged  by  the  crowd  assembled  morning  and 
evening  on  board  the  Piroscafi. 

A  brisk  walk  round  the  city  to  obtain  a  first 
1  The  census  of  1904  shows  only  twenty-nine  thousand. 


20  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

impression  of  South  America  was  the  most  I 
could  do  in  a  stop  of  a  few  hours.  The  land- 
ing was  somewhat  laborious  owing  to  a  heavy 
sea.  The  President  of  the  Eepublic  was  oblig- 
ing enough  to  send  me  a  greeting  by  one  of  his 
aides-de-camp,  and  placed  at  my  disposal  the 
most  comfortable  of  boats,  which,  after  dancing 
gaily  for  a  while  on  the  waves,  finally  landed 
us  without  too  much  trouble.  The  docks,  con- 
structed by  a  French  firm,  are  nearly  approach- 
ing completion.  The  great  European  vessels 
could  here,  as  at  Eio,  moor  alongside  the  quays. 
Why  should  the  Regina  Elena  lie  off  outside? 
A  question  of  red-tape,  such  as  I  found  later 
at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  exposes  travellers  to  the  an- 
noyance of  transhipping  when  every  accom- 
modation exists  for  mooring  inside  the  harbour. 
Thus  on  these  Latin  shores  I  found  a  familiar 
feature  of  my  own  bureaucratic  land. 

Beside  the  French  Minister,  who  is  a  friend, 
numerous  journalists  of  pen  and  kodak  came  to 
offer  a  cordial  welcome  to  their  confrere.  M. 
Sillard,  an  eminent  engineer  from  the  "  Cen- 
tral "  School  at  the  head  of  the  French  colony 
here,  is  in  charge  of  the  harbour  works.  He  has 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES   21 

succeeded  in  winning  for  our  country  the  esteem 
of  every  class  of  the  population.  The  motor- 
cars start  off.  The  first  jisiti*- to  the  Post-office 
where  I  am  greetedU)$LJLjC_o_rdial  Montevidean 
whom  I  do  not  recognise  but  whose  first  word 
reveals  an  habitue  of  Paris.  I  have  travelled 
by  a  long  road  to  find  out  here  the  boulevard 
atmosphere ! 

There  can  be  no  two  opinions  about  Monte- 
video. It  is^a  big^cheerlul  town,  with  handsome 
avenues  well  laid  out.  Some  fine  monuments 
denote  a  capital  city.  Streets  animated  but  not 
too  noisy ;  sumptuous  villas  in  the  suburbs ;  sub- 
tropical vegetation  in  gardens  and  parks;  a 
pleasant  promenade  amid  the  palm-trees  by  the 
sea.  The  dwelling-houses  are  for  the  most  part 
of  the  colonial  type.  A  very  lofty  ground-floor, 
with  door  and  windows  too  often  surcharged 
with  ornament  resembling  the  sugar-icing  of  the 
Italian  pastry-cook,  and  calculated  to  convey  to 
these  sunny  lands  an  idea  of  cheap  art.  The 
unexpected  thing  is  that  the  first  floor  stops 
short  at  its  balconies  as  if  sudden  ruin  had 
overtaken  the  builder.  I  found  this  feature  re- 
peated ad  infinitum  wherever  I  went.  The  most 


SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 


modest  of  citizens,  as  soon  as  he  can  turn  his 
back  on  his  primitive  cabin  of  corrugated  iron, 
makes  a  point  of  arousing  the  admiration  of  the 
public  with  the  decorative  balcony  of  a  first 
floor  that  will  never  be  built.  Koofs  flat  and 
without  chimneys:  the  climate  allows  of  this. 
Occasionally  a  balustrade  that  almost  gives  the 
illusion  of  a  finished  building,  but  that  the  bal- 
cony, cut  off  short  at  a  height  of  from  two  to 
three  feet,  leaves  you  again  in  doubt  as  to  its 
object.  The  drawing-room  windows  are  nat- 
urally in  the  front  of  the  house,  and  here  ladies 
in  their  indoor  dress  have  no  objection  to  show- 
ing themselves  for  the  delectation  of  passers-by. 

But  let  us  say  at  once  that  in  these  countries 
where  the  blood  is  hot  misconduct  is  rare.  Men 
marry  young,  and  the  demands  of  a  civilisation 
as  yet  untouched  by  decadence  leaves  little 
energy  for  pleasure  that  must  be  sought  else- 
where than  on  the  strait  path.  I  will  not  say 
but  what  the  great  attraction  of  Paris  for  many 
South  Americans  is  precisely  the  pleasure  of  the 
novelty  it  offers  in  this  respect.  It  is  sufficient 
for  me  to  set  down  what  came  under  my  notice  : 
happy  homes  and  regular  habits;  a  tranquil  en- 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  23 

joyrnent  of  a  life  of  virtue.  The  living-rooms 
are  always  grouped  around  a  patio  with  its 
colonnade  bright  with  trees  and  flowers,  and 
here  their  occupants  enjoy  the  utmost  privacy 
with  an  absence  of  street  noises. 

These  are  the  impressions  gathered  in  a  hasty 
walk,  since  my  first  visit  was  necessarily  for 
the  President  of  the  Republic  and  my  time  was 
strictly  limited.  The  Presidential  palace  was  a 

distinguished  only  by  its 


guard.  Many  of  the  soldiers  show  strong  signs 
of  mixed  blood.  Curiously  enough  the  sentry 
is  posted  not  on  the  pavement  but  out  in  the 
street,  opposite  the  palace.  As  traffic  increases, 
this  rule  will  need  to  be  changed.  The  Presi- 
dent was  not  in  his  office.  I  was  cordially  re- 
ceived, however,  by  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  who  was  like  the  most  obliging  of  Pa- 
risians. A  few  steps  from  the  palace  I  met  the 
President  of  the  Republic,  with  a  small  crowd 
round  him,  and  easily  recognisable  by  his  high 
hat.  I  was  careful  not  to  interrupt  him.  He 
is  going  to  do  me  the  honour  of  receiving  me 
when  I  return  to  the  capital  of  Uruguay. 

Senor  Williman  is  a  compatriot,  the  son  of  a 


24  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Frenchman,  of  Alsatian  origin.  Before  his  elec- 
tion he  was  professor  of  physics,  and  he  has 
not  thought  it  necessary  to  allow  his  political 
,  duties  to  interfere  with  his  educational  work; 
\r  *  twice  a  week  he  lectures  in  the  college,  where 
he  becomes  again  the  happy  schoolmaster  whose 
pupils  have  not  yet  developed  their  powers  of 
X  contradiction.  This  charming  democratic  sim- 
plicity is  in  curious  contrast  with  our  own  per- 
sistent efforts  to  save  as  much  of  the  ancient 
autocratic  machinery  as  possible  from  the 
revolutionary  shipwreck.  It  is  agreeable  to  be 
able  to  testify  to  the  great  personal  influence 
that  M.  Williman  wields  in  this  land  of  Latin 
dissension. 

We  must  get  back  to  the  ship,  which  is  an- 
nouncing its  departure.  With  what  pleasure 
shall  I  revisit  Montevideo!  There  is  perhaps 
more  of  a  French  atmosphere  about  the  capital 
of  Uruguay  than  any  other  South  American  city, 
and  it  has  just  enough  exotic  charm  to  quicken 
our  pleasure  at  finding  French  sympathies  in 
these  foreign  hearts.  We  get  a  view  from  the 
deck  of  the  Regina  Elena,  as  we  pass,  of  the 
which  is  something  like  the  Mont- 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  25 

Val£rien  of  Paris,  and  which  in  this  land  of 
flat  alluvial  soil  assumes  a  very  great  import- 
ance. Like  its  prototype,  it  is  crowned  with 
a  bristling  line  of  fortifications,  and  Uruguay  is 
so  proud  of  this  phenomenon  that  it  has  placed 
the  Cerro  in  the  national  arms,  where  it  figures 
in  the  form  of  a  green  sugar-loaf;  no  good  Ori- 
ental omits  to  tell  you  that  there  is  nothing  like 
it  in  the  Argentine. 

Under  the  stinging  breeze  of  the  persistent 
pampero,  our  "  screw  "  began  to  turn  again  in 
the  heavy,  clayey  waters,  with  a  slow,  regular 
rhythm.  To-morrow  at  daybreak  we  shall  be 
looking  through  our  glasses  at  the  port  of 
Buenos  Ayres. 

The  estuary  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  (Silver 
River1)  that  we  have  now  entered  is  a  ver- 
itable sea.  Though  this  immense  sheet  of  water 
is  practically  landlocked,  there  is  no  trace  of 
land  on  the  horizon.  It  is  said  to  be  as  wide 
as  the  Lake  of  Geneva  is  long,  not  far  short  of 
thirty  miles,  spreading  to  nearly  five  times  these 

1  The  estuary,  which  is  not  a  river,  and  which  contains 
not  a  particle  of  silver,  was  thus  named  from  a  few  native 
ornaments  discovered  in  its  bed  by  the  first  comers. 


26  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

dimensions  at  its  mouth,  after  a  course  of  350 
kilometres. 

The  area  covered  by  the  estuary  is  larger 
than  Holland.  Two  big  rivers,  the  Uruguay  and 
the  Parana,  pour  their  waters  into  this  enormous 
cul  de  sac,  which  is  often  ruffled  by  an  unpleas- 
ant sea,  as  at  this  moment,  and,  after  their 
junction  at  the  small  town  of  Nueva  Palmira, 
in  Uruguay,  they  project  into  the  Atlantic  a 
huge  volume  of  water  drawn  from  a  vast  water- 
shed representing  one  quarter  of  South  America. 
The  tide  is  felt  nearly  a  hundred  miles  above 
the  confluence.  Montevideo,  200  kilometres  from 
Buenos  Ayres,  seems  to  guard  the  entrance  of 
this  inner  sea,  whilst  the  Argentine  capital, 
situated  on  the  opposite  shore,  is  almost  at  the 
extremity  of  the  bay.  Clay  deposits,  silted  down 
by  a  relatively  weak  current,  clog  the  estuary 
and  require  constant  dredging  to  keep  the  chan- 
nel open  to  vessels  of  large  tonnage.  This  is 
the  problem  which  faces  the  port  authorities  of 
Buenos  Ayres. 

At  last  the  town  comes  in  sight.  From  out 
the  grey  clouds  driven  by  the  pampero  there 
emerge  the  massive  shapes  of  the  tall  elevators 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  27 

—those  lofty  cubes  of  masonry  so  dear  to  North 
America.  Neither  church  steeples  nor  any  other 
prominent  monuments.  Low,  prosaic  banks, 
barely  distinguishable  from  the  water,  a  few 
clumps  of  palms  here  and  there,  unbroken 
plains,  an  utter  absence  of  background  to  the 
picture.  We  are  preceded  by  two  pilot  boats, 
their  flags  flying  in  honour  of  the  President  of 
the  Republic,  who  is  lunching  on  board  a  train- 
ing ship  within  the  harbour. 

Very  slowly  the  Regina  Elena  brings  up  at 
the  quayside.  The  gangway  is  put  out,  and  be- 
hold a  delegation  of  the  Argentine  Senate, 
accompanied  by  an  officer  from  the  President's 
military  household,  sent  to  welcome  me.  A 
deputation  from  the  French  colony  also  arrives, 
having  at  its  head  the  governor  of  the  French 
Bank  of  Rio  de  la  Plata,  M.  Py.  Cordial  hand- 
shakes: a  thousand  questions  from  either  side. 
Friendly  greetings  are  exchanged,  some  of  them 
taking  almost  the  form  of  brief  harangues  in 
which  the  mother-country  is  not  forgotten. 
Journalists  swarm  round  us.  As  might  be  ex- 
pected, the  Prensa,  Nation,  and  Diario  have 
each  a  word  to  say.  I  offer  my  best  thanks  to 


28  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  members  of  the  Senate.  Farewell  to  the 
excellent  Captain  with  my  best  wishes.  Then 
I  get  into  the  motor-car  which  ten  minutes  later 
drops  me  at  the  door  of  my  hotel.  I  am  in  the 
Argentine  Republic.  Henceforth  I  must  keep 
my  eyes  open. 

^.-Buenos  Ayres  first.  It  isjajarge  European 
cityr  giving  everywhere  an  impression  of  hasty 
growth,,  but  foreshadowing,  too,  in  its  prodigious 
progress,  the  capital  of  a  continent.  The  Ave- 
nida  de  Mayo,  as  wide  as  the  finest  of  our 
boulevards,  recalls  Oxford  Street  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  its  shop-fronts  and  the  ornamental  fea- 
tures of  its  buildings.  It  starts  from  a  large 
public  square,  rather  clumsily  decorated  and 
closed  on  the  sea  side  by  a  tall  Italian  edifice, 
known  as  the  Palais  Rose,  in  which  Ministers 
and  President  hold  their  sittings;  it  is  balanced 
at  the  other  end  of  the  avenue  by  another  large 
square  with  the  House  of  Parliament,  a  colossal 
building  nearly  approaching  completion,  with 
a  cupola  that  resembles  that  of  the  Capitol  of 
Washington.  Every  style  of  architecture  is  to 
be  seen,  from  the  showy,  the  more  frequent,  to 
the  sober,  comparatively  rare.  The  finest  build- 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  29 

ing  is  without  question  that  of  the  wealthy 
Prensa,  which  we  shall  visit  later. 

There  is  an  epidemic  of  Italian  architecture 
in  Buenos  Ayres.  Everywhere  the  eye  rests  on 
astragals  and  florets,  amid  terrible  complications 
of  interlaced  lines.  I  except  the  dainty  villas 
and  imposing  mansions  which  call  public  at- 
tention to  the  dwellings  of  the  aristocracy.  I 
suppose  that  the  business  quarters  of  all  cities 
present  the  same  features.  The  commercial 
quarter  of  Buenos  Ayres  is  the  most  crowded 
imaginable.  Highways  that  seemed  spacious 
twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  for  a  population  of 
two  or  three  hundred  thousand  souls  have  be- 
come lamentably  inadequate  for  a  capital  city 
with  more  than  a  million.  The  footway,  so  nar- 
row that  two  can  scarcely  walk  abreast,  is 
closely  shaved  by  a  tramway,  which  constitutes 
a  danger  to  life  and  limb.  The  traffic  is  severely 
regulated  by  a  careful  police.  But  so  congested 
with  foot  passengers  do  certain  streets  become 
of  an  afternoon  that  they  have  had  to  be  closed 
to  vehicles. 

In  spite  of  the  wisest  of  precautions,  the  prob- 
lem of  shopping  in  the  chief  business  district 


30  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

is  not  easily  solved.  To  stroll  along,  or,  still 
worse,  to  pause  toJook  in  at  a  shop  window, 
is  out  of  the  question.  Politeness  demands  here 
that  the  honours  of  the  road  be  paid  to  age  as 
to  sex;  so  if  by  chance,  in  the  confusion,  you 
come  upon  a  friend,  you  must  stand  on  the 
outer  edge  of  the  pavement  so  as  to  check  as 
little  as  possible  the  flood  of  human  beings 
driven  inwards  by  the  almost  continuous  pass- 
ing of  the  tramway.  It  is  only  just  to  add  that 
this  means  of  locomotion,  which  is  universally 
adopted  here,  is  remarkably  well  organised. 
Still,  there  are  occasions  when  one  must  go  on 
foot,  and  the  municipal  government,  which  has 
laid  out  elsewhere  broad  highways  in  which 
cabs,  carriages,  and  motors  may  take  their  re- 
venge for  the  scanty  accommodation  afforded 
them  in  the  overcrowded  centre,  is  faced  with 
.^  the  urgent  necessity  of  laying  out  hundreds  of 
^V»  millions  of  francs  in  a  scheme  for  street  improve- 
ment that  cannot  be  much  longer  postponed. 

One  of  the  peculiarities  of  Buenos  Ayres  is 
that  you  can  see  no  end  to  it.  Since  on  the 
side  of  the  Pampas  there  is  no  obstacle  to  build- 
ing operations,  small  colonial  houses,  similar 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  ATRES  31 

to  those  that  attracted  my  notice  at  Montevideo, 
make  a  fringe  on  the  edge  of  the  city,  that 
extends  ever  farther  and  farther  into  the  plain 
in  proportion  as  building  plots  in  the  city  area 
—the  object  of  perpetual  speculation — rise  in 
value.  Some  of  brick,  some  of  plaster  or  cement, 
these  villas  make  comfortable  quarters  in  a  land 
where  no  chimney-stacks  are  needed.  The  qual- 
ity of  the  building,  however,  goes  down  naturally 
as  one  draws  nearer  the  Pampas.  The  lowest 
end  of  the  scale  offers  the  greatest  simplifica- 
tion: walls  of  clay  dried  in  the  sun,  with  a 
roof  of  corrugated  iron,  or  the  more  primitive 
rancho,  supported  on  empty  oil-cans,  placed  at 
convenient  distances,  with  the  spaces  filled  in 
with  boughs  or  thatch.  One  hardly  knows 
whether  this  outer  edge  of  habitations  can  fairly 
be  included  in  the  city  area  or  not.  The  motor- 
car has  been  travelling  so  long  that  a  doubt  is 
permissible.  The  track  is  only  a  more  or  less 
level,  earth  road,  which  just  allows  the  car  to 
run  over  its  surface  but  cannot  be  said  to  add 
anything  to  the  pleasure  of  the  drive. 

The  drawback  in  this  country  is  the  absence 
of  wood,  of  stone,  and  of  coal.     No  doubt  in  the 


32  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

more  distant  provinces  there  are  still  fine  forests, 
which  are  being  ruthlessly  devastated  either  for 
quebracho  (the  tree  that  is  richest  in  tannin), 
or  for  fuel  for  factory  furnaces;  but  the  cost  of 
transport  is  so  great  that  the  more  prosperous 
part  of  the  Republic  gets  its  timber  from  Nor- 
way. Uruguay,  on  the  other  hand,  supplies  a 
stone  that  is  excellent  both  for  building  and  for 
macadam  and  paving:  a  heavy  expense.  As  for 
coal,  it  is  the  return  cargo  of  English  vessels 
which  carry  as  inward  freight  frozen  meat  and 
live  cattle. 

Without  comparing  in  density  of  shipping 
with  the  ports  of  London,  or  New  York,  or  Liver- 
pool, a  noble  line  of  sea-monsters  may  be  seen 
here  stretching  seven  miles  in  length,  most  of 
them  being  rapidly  loaded  or  unloaded  in  the 
docks  by  powerful  cranes.  The  scene  has  been 
a  hundred  times  described,  and  offers  here  no 
specially  characteristic  features. 

I  should  need  a  volume  if  I  tried  to  describe 
the  plan  and  equipment  of  the  docks  of  Buenos 
Ayres.  Those  who  take  an  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject can  easily  get  all  the  information  they  need. 
The  rest  will  be  grateful  to  me  for  resisting  the 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AT  RES  33 

temptation  to  quote  long  lists  of  figures  copied 
from  technical  reports.  Here  it  will  suffice  for 
me  to  state  that  there  are  two  ports — the  Ria- 
chuelo  and  the  "  port  of  the  capital."  The  former 
is  a  natural  harbour  formed  by  a  stream  of  the 
same  name.  It  is  used  as  the  auxiliary  of  the 
other,  which  is  finely  fitted  with  every  appliance 
of  modern  science.  More  than  30,000  craft,  sail 
and  steam,  come  in  and  out  annually,  including 
at  least  4000  from  overseas. 

The  big  grain  elevators  have  been  described 
over  and  over  again.  Those  of  Buenos  Ayres 
are  no  whit  inferior  to  the  best  of  the  gigantic 
structures  of  North  America.  Each  can  load 
20,000  tons  of  grain  in  a  day.  To  one  there  is 
attached  a  mill  said  to  be  the  largest  in  the 
world.  Covered  by  way  of  precaution  with  the 
long  white  shirt  that  stamped  us  at  once  as 
real  millers,  we  wandered  pleasantly  enough 
amongst  the  millstones  and  bolters  which  trans- 
form the  small  grey  wheat  of  the  Pampas  into 
fine  white  flour.  Our  Beauce  farmers  accus- 
tomed to  heavy  ears  of  golden  wheat  would  not 
appreciate  this  species,  which,  moreover,  re- 
quires careful  washing.  We  were  told  that  it 


31  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

is  the  richest  in  gluten  of  all  known  species. 
Diabetics  know,  therefore,  for  what  to  ask. 

The  slaughter-houses  of  the  Negra,  round 
which  I  was  taken  by  M.  Carlos  Luro  (son  of 
a  Frenchman)  form  a  model  establishment  in 
which  no  less  than  1200  oxen  are  killed  daily, 
without  counting  sheep  and  pigs — a  faithful 
copy  of  the  famous  slaughter-houses  of  North 
America.  The  beast,  having  reached  the  end 
of  a  cul  de  sac,  is  felled  by  a  blow  from  a 
mallet  and  slips  down  a  slope,  at  the  foot  of 
which  the  carotid  artery  is  cut.  After  this 
operation,  the  body  is  hooked  up  by  a  small 
wagon  moving  along  an  aerial  rail,  and  is  then 
carried  through  a  series  of  stages  which  end 
in  its  being  handed  over  in  two  pieces  to  the 
freezing  chambers  to  await  speedy  shipment  for 
England— the  great  market  for  Argentine  meat. 
The  whole  is  performed  with  a  rapidity  so  dis- 
concerting that  the  innocent  victim  of  our  canni- 
bal habits  finds  himself  in  the  sack  ready  for 
freezing,  with  all  his  inside  neatly  packed  into 
tins,  before  he  has  had  time  to  think.  "  We 
use  everything  but  his  squeals,"  said  a  savage 
butcher  of  Chicago.  Veterinaries  are  in  at- 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES   35 

tendance  to  inspect  each  beast,  which  in  the 
event  of  its  being  condemned  is  immediately 
burnt. 

The  first  colonists,  arriving  by  sea,  naturally 
built  their  town  close  to  the  port.  The  capital 
now,  in  its  prosperity,  seeks  refinement  of  every 
kind,  and  laments  that  the  approach  to  the  sea- 
coast  is  disfigured  by  shipping,  elevators,  and 
wharves.  The  same  might  be  said  of  any  great 
seaport.  Buenos  Ayres  in  reality  needs  a  new 
harbour,  but  it  looks  as  if  the  present  one  could 
scarcely  be  altered. 

It  is  naturally  in  this  part  of  the  town  that 
you  find  the  wretched  shanties  which  are  the 
first  refuge  of  the  Italian  immigrants  whilst 
waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  start  off  again. 
Here  is  to  be  seen  all  the  sordid  misery  of  Euro- 
pean towns  with  the  accompaniment  of  the  usual 
degrading  features.  I  hasten  to  add  that  help 
— both  public  and  private — is  not  lacking.  The 
ladies  of  Buenos  Ayres  have  organised  different 
charitable  works,  and  visit  needy  families;  as 
generosity  is  one  of  the  leading  traits  in  the 
Argentine  character,  much  good  is  done  in  this 
way.  There  are  no  external  signs  of  the 


36  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

feminine  degradation   that  disfigures  our  own 
public  streets. 

Why  is  it  that  this  swarm  of  Italians  should 
stop  in  crowded  Buenos  Ayres  instead  of  going 
straight  out  to  the  Pampas,  where  labour  is  so 
urgently  needed?  I  was  told  that  the  harvest 
frequently  rots  on  the  fields  for  want  of  reap- 
ers, and  this  in  spite  of  wages  that  rise  as  high  as 
twenty  francs  per  day.  There  are  a  good  many 
reasons  for  this.  In  the  first  place,  such  wages 
as  this  are  only  for  a  season  of  a  few  months  or 
weeks.  Then  again,  these  Italian  labourers  com- 
plain that  if  they  venture  far  from  the  city,  they 
have  no  protection  against  the  overbearing  of 
officials,  who  are  inclined  to  take  advantage  of 
their  privileged  position.  I  do  not  want  to 
dwell  on  the  point.  The  same  complaints — but 
more  detailed — reached  me  in  Brazil.  Both  the 
Argentine  and  Brazilian  Governments,  to  whom 
I  submitted  the  charges  brought  against  their 
representatives,  protested  that  whenever  any 
abuse  could  be  proved  against  an  agent  he  was 
proceeded  against  with  the  utmost  rigour  of  the 
law.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  good 
faith  of  the  authorities,  who  have  every  interest 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  37 

in  encouraging  the  rapid  growth  of  the  popula- 
tion in  the  Pampas.  Besides,  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  elements  of  immigration  are 
never  of  the  highest  quality.  Still,  I  should  not 
be  surprised  to  learn  that  there  was  occasion  for  a 
stricter  control  in  the  direction  I  have  indicated. 

So  far,  I  have  said  nothing  of  the  beauties 
of  the  city.  It  is  a  pity  that  amongst  the 
attractions  of  Buenos  Ayres  the  sea  cannot  be 
counted.  A  level  shore  does  not  lend  itself  to 
decorative  effect.  A  mediocre  vegetation ;  water 
of  a  dirty  ochre,  neither  red  nor  yellow;  nothing 
to  be  found  to  charm  the  eye.  So  I  saw  the 
sea  only  twice  during  my  stay  at  Buenos  Ayres 
—once  on  arrival,  and  again  when  I  left.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  heat,  that  section  of  the  popula- 
tion which  is  not  compelled  to  stay  flees  to  Mar 
del  Plata,  the  Trouville  of  Buenos  Ayres,  a 
charming  conglomeration  of  beflowered  villas  on 
an  ocean  beach. 

A  .perfectly  healthy  city.  No  expense  has  been 
spared  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  a  good  system 
of  municipal  sanitation.  Avenues  planted  with 
trees,  gardens  and  parks  laid  out  to  ensure 
adequate  reserves  of  fresh  air,  are  available  to 


38  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

all,  and  lawns  exist  for  youthful  sports.  The 
zoological  and  botanical  gardens  are  models  of 
their  kind.  A  fine  racecourse,  surrounded  by 
the  green  belt  of  foliage  of  the  Argentine  Bois 
de  Boulogne,  is  known  as  Palermo. 

A  Frenchman,  the  genial  M.  Thays,  well 
known  amongst  his  European  colleagues,  has 
entire  control  of  the  plantations  and  parks  of 
Buenos  Ayres.  M.  Thays,  who  excels  in  French 
landscape  gardening,  takes  delight  in  devoting 
his  whole  mind  and  life  to  his  trees,  his  plants 
and  flowers.  He  is  ready  at  any  moment  to 
defend  his  charge  against  attacks — an  attitude 
that  is  wholly  superfluous,  since  the  public  of 
Buenos  Ayres  never  lets  slip  an  opportunity  of 
testifying  its  gratitude  to  him. 

Wherever  he  discovers  a  propitious  site,  the 
master-gardener  plants  some  shoot  which  will 
one  day  be  a  joy  to  look  upon.  He  has  laid 
out  and  planted  fine  parks.  He  has  large  green- 
houses at  his  disposal,  and  any  prominent  citi- 
zen, or  any  association  popular  or  aristocratic 
can,  for  the  asking,  have  the  floral  decorations 
needed  for  a  fete  delivered  at  his  door  by  the 
municipal  carts. 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  39 

In  his  search-after  rare  plants  for  the  enrich- 
ment of  his  town,  M.  Thays  has  visited  equa- 
torial regions — the  Argentine,  Bolivia,  Brazil. 
As  his  ambition  vaults  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  Buenos  Ayres,  he  has  conceived  a  project, 
already  in  process  of  execution,  of  founding  a 
great  national  park,  as  in  the  United  States, 
in  which  all  the  marvels  of  tropical  vegetation 
may  be  collected.  The  Falls  of  Iguazzu — greater 
and  loftier  than  those  of  Niagara — would  be 
enclosed  in  this  vast  estate  on  the  very  frontiers 
of  Brazil. 

Apart  from  these  plans  of  conquest,  which 
make  him  a  rival  of  Alexander,  M.  Thays  is  a 
modest,  affable  man,  who  takes  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  to  look  as  if  he  had  done  nothing  out 
of  the  common.  Were  I  but  competent  I  would 
describe  the  organisation  of  his  botanical  gar- 
den, which  is  superior  to  any  to  be  found  in 
the  old  continent.  More  amusing  is  it,  perhaps, 
to  follow  him  through  the  various  sections  in 
which  the  characteristic  flora  of  every  part  of 
the  world  is  well  represented.  The  Argentine, 
as  may  be  supposed,  has  here  the  larger  share. 
Here  are  displayed  specimens  of  the  principal 


40  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

species  of  flora  to  be  found  in  the  district  lying 
between  the  frozen  regions  of  Tierra  del  Fuego 
and  the  Equator :  the  Antarctic  beech,  the  carob 
palm,  the  quebracho  (rendered  extraordinarily 
durable  by  the  quantity  of  tannin  it  contains, 
and  in  great  request  for  railway  sleepers), 
walnut,  and  the  cedar  of  Tucuman  or  of  Men- 
doza — which,  by  the  way,  is  not  a  cedar.  It  is 
from  its  wood  that  cigar  boxes  are  made.  It 
is  used  in  the  woodwork  of  rich  houses,  for  it  is 
easy  to  handle  and  highly  decorative  by  reason 
of  its  warm  colouring.  Its  fault  is  that  it 
warps;  wherever  you  find  it  in  house  fittings, 
doors  and  windows  refuse  to  open  or  shut  as 
they  should. 

But  you  should  see  M.  Thays  doing  the 
honours  of  the  ombu  and  the  palo  borracho. 
The  oiribu  is  the  marvel  of  the  Pampas,  the  sole 
tree  which  the  locust  refuses  to  touch.  For  this 
reason  alone,  it  has  been  allowed  to  grow  freely, 
though  not  even  man  has  found  a  way  to  utilise 
what  the  voracious  insects  of  Providence  de- 
cline. For  the  ombu  prides  itself  on  being  good 
for  nothing.  It  does  not  even  lend  itself  to 
making  good  firewood.  It  is  only  to  look  at. 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  41 

But  that  is  sufficient.  Imagine  an  object  re- 
sembling the  backs  of  antediluvian  monsters, 
mastodons  or  elephants,  lying  in  the  shade  of 
a  great  mass  of  sheltering  foliage.  Heavy  folds 
in  the  grey  rind  denote  a  growing  limb,  a 
rounded  shoulder,  a  gigantic  head  half  con- 
cealed. These  are  the  tremendous  roots  of  the 
ombu,  whose  delight  it  is  to  issue  forth  from 
the  soil  in  the  form  of  astonishing  animated 
objects.  When  by  foot  and  stick  you  have  as- 
certained that  these  living  shapes  are  in  reality 
mummified  within  a  thick  bark,  you  turn  your 
attention  to  the  trunk  itself  and  find  it  hollow, 
with  a  crumbling  surface. 

Another  surprise!  The  finger  sinks  into  the 
tree,  meeting  only  the  sort  of  resistance  that 
would  be  offered  by  a  thin  sheet  of  paper.  'And 
now  fine  powdery  scales  of  a  substance  which 
should  be  wood,  but,  in  fact,  is  indescribable, 
fall  into  your  hand.  They  crumble  away  into 
an  impalpable  dust,  which  is  carried  off  by  the 
breeze  before  you  have  had  time  to  examine  it. 
Now  you  have  the  secret  of  the  oiribu.  Its  wood 
evaporates  i"  thp  nppn  air:  at  the  same  time 
there  spring  from  its  strangely  beast-like  roots 


42  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

young  and  living  shoots  of  the  parent  tree. 
Since  it  is  impossible  to  burn  the  non-existent, 
you  cannot,  obviously,  have  recourse  to  the 
ortibu  to  cook  your  lunch.  Here  is  an  example 
in  the  vegetable  world  of  paradox,  which  has 
no  mission  in  life  but  a  glorious  uselessness.  If 
it  were  but  beautiful  I  should  recommend  the 
ambit,  to  poets  who  profess  to  prefer  the  Beauti- 
ful to  the  Useful.  But  as  its  appearance  does 
not  impress  the  beholder,  the  wisest  course  is 
to  impute  its  existence  to  momentary  abstraction 
on  the  part  of  the  Creator. 

The  palp  borracho,  on  the  other  hand,  is  ex- 
tremely useful,  though  not  without  a  touch  of 
capriciousness.  Its  popular  name,  which  sig- 
nifies "  the  drunkard,"  has  been  given  to  it  on 
the  ground  that  it  seems  to  stagger;  but  such 
a  name  is  a  libel.  This  peaceful  denizen  of  the 
forest  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  alcoholic 
world.  Nor  can  it  be  said  to  attract  human 
society,  for  its  strange  trunk,  strangled  in  a 
collar  of  roots,  and  bulging  in  its  middle  parts, 
bristles  with  innumerable  points,  short  and 
sharp,  which  prevent  all  undue  familiarity. 
These  thorns  fall  with  age,  at  least  from  the 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  43 

lower  part  of  the  tree,  but  as  they  exist  else- 
where, even  on  the  smallest  twig,  no  animal, 
from  man  to  monkey,  can  venture  upon  its 
branches. 

The  trunk,  if  tapped  with  a  cane,  returns  a 
hollow  sound.  The  tree  is,  in  fact,  empty,  need- 
ing only  to  be  cut  into  lengths  to  give  man 
all  he  needs  for  a  trough.  The  Indian  squaw 
uses  it  to  wash  her  linen,  and  the  wood,  ex- 
posed to  the  double  action  of  air  and  water,  be- 
comes as  hard  as  cement.  The  unripe  fruit,  the 
size  of  a  good  apple,  furnishes  a  white  cream, 
which,  if  not  quite  the  quality  demanded  for 
five  o'clock  tea  at  Rumpelma.yer^StTir"supplies 
the  natives  with  a  savoury  breakfast.  Later, 
when  the  fruit  comes  to  maturity,  it  bursts  under 
the  sun's  rays  into  a  large  tuft  of  silky  cotton, 
dotting  the  branches  with  white  balls  and  fur- 
nishing admirable  material  for  the  birds  with 
which  to  build  their  nests.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  the  species  is  known  as  the  "  false_cotton- 
tree."  The  exceedingly  fine  thread  produced  by 
this  tree  is  too  short  to  be  spun,  but  the  In- 
dians, and  even  Europeans,  turn  it  to  account 
in  many  different  ways.  Soft  pillows  and  cush- 


44  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

ions  are  made  with  it,  and  I  can  speak  personally 
of  their  comfort. 

M.  Thays  was  not  the  man  to  let  us  leave 
without  seeing  his  plantations  of  yerba-mate. 
Every  one  knows  that^n^^the  Paraguay  holly, 
is  a  native  of  Paraguay,  whence  it  spread  to 
Chili,  Brazil,  and  the  Argentine.  Its  leaves, 
dried  and  slightly  roasted,  yield  a  stimulating 
infusion  that  is  as  much  enjoyed  by  the  South 
American  colonists  as  by  the  natives.  Like 
kola,  tea,  and  coffee,  mate  contains  a  large  pro- 
portion of  caffeine,  which  renders  it  a  good  nerve 
tonic  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  digestive. 

I  have  tasted  "  Paraguay  tea,"  or  "  Jesuits' 
tea,"  on  several  occasions,  but  cannot  honestly 
say  I  like  it.  The  palate,  however,  ends  by  get- 
ting used  to  anything.  I  have  a  friend  who 
drinks  valerian  with  pleasure.  All  South 
America  delights  in  the  peculiar  aroma  of 
the  strengthening  but,  on  first  acquaintance, 
certainly  unpleasant  mate.  Existence  in  the 
Pampas  is  strenuous.  The  days  are  past  when 
a  cow  was  lassoed  to  provide  a  beefsteak  for 
your  lunch.  The  favourite  stimulant  of  the 
rancho  is  the  yerba-mate  which  puts  new  life 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES  45 

into  the  exhausted  horseman.  Everywhere  in 
town  and  country,  the  first  rite  in  the  morning 
is  maie-drinking.  Men  and  women  carry  the 
little  gourd  around,  into  which  each  in  turn 
dips  the  tube  of  the  ~bombilla,  a  perforated  disc 
which  travels  from  mouth  to  mouth,  in  the 
company  of  devotees. 

In  the  old  days,  it  was  the  tradition  of  mate- 
making  to  give  the  first  infusion — poured  off 
quickly,  but  invariably  slightly  bitter — to  the 
servants.  Growing  familiarity  with  the  herb 
has  practically  set  aside  this  practice:  in  fact, 
while  it  is,  and  probably  always  will  be,  the 
favourite  drink  of  the  masses,  the  aristocracy 
and  bourgeoisie,  though  still  appreciating  mate, 
drink  in  preference  China  tea  or  Santos  coffee, 
like  good  Europeans.  Yet  the  consumption  of 
mate  has  increased  enormously  with  the  popu- 
lation. It  has  been  calculated  that  an  Argen- 
tine spends  twice  as  much  in  a  year  on  mate 
as  a  Frenchman  on  coffee.  Until  the  last  few 
years  the  Argentine  Republic,  independently  of 
its  home  production,  imported  from  Brazil  and 
Paraguay  40  millions  of  kilogrammes,  estimated 
at  22  millions  of  francs. 


46  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

As  might  be  expected,  the  Argentine  Govern- 
ment has  shown  itself  anxious  to  encourage  the 
cultivation  of  mate.  The  difficulty  lay  in  the 
germinating  process.  In  certain  provinces  of 
the  Argentine,  mate  grew  wild,  but  when  sown 
the  crops  were  a  failure.  After  many  trials, 
M.  Thays  discovered  that  the  seed  only  sprouted 
after  long  soaking  in  warm  water,  and  that, 
strangely  enough,  the  , plants  thus  produced 
could  be  propagated  without  repeating  this  pre- 
liminary process.  It  appears  that  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature,  the  fertilising  process  takes 
place  in  the  stomach  of  birds.  The  Jesuits  had 
made  the  same  discovery,  but  on  their  expulsion 
they  carried  the  secret  away  with  them.  M.  Thays 
redisjCpjEered  it.  More  than  once  an  attempt  has 
been  made  to  introduce  the  habit  of  mate- 
drinking  into  Europe.  I  do  not  think  it  will 
easily  come  about.  It  would,  nevertheless,  be 
a  great  boon  if  yerba-mate  could  with  us,  as  in 
South  America,  be  substituted  for  the  alcohol 
which  is  threatening  us  with  irrevocable 
destruction. 

I  cannot  leave  the  Botanical  Garden  without 
noting  the  pleasing  effect  of  the  light  trellises 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AYRES   47 

which  are  a  feature  of  all  large  gardens  here. 
In  this  fine  climate,  where  winter's  cold  is  prac- 
tically unknown,  neither  shrubs  nor  flowers  need 
the  protection  of  glass.  An  arbour  of  trellis- 
work  with  gay  flower-borders  forms  a  winter 
garden  without  glass,  in  which  sun  and  shade, 
cunningly  blended,  throw  into  delicate  relief  the 
beauties  of  the  plants.  It  is  not  quite  the  open 
air,  and  neither  is  it  the  greenhouse.  Let  us 
call  it  a  vast  cage  of  decorative  vegetation. 


CHAPTEE  III 


BUENOS  AYRES  (continued) 

OTANY  and  zoology  are  sister  sci- 
ences.    We  leave  the   plants   to 
inspect  the  beasts  in  the  company 
of  M.  Thays,  who  is  always  glad 
to  see  his  neighbour  M.  Onelli. 

The  governor  of  the  Zoological  Garden  of 
Buenos  Ayres  is  a  phlegmatic  little  man,  Franco- 
Italian  in  speech,  and  the  more  amusing  in  that 
his  gay,  caustic  wit  is  clothed  in  a  highly  con- 
densed, ironical  form.  What  a  pity  that  his 
animals,  for  whom  he  is  father  and  mother, 
sister  and  brother,  cannot  appreciate  his  sallies ! 
Not  that  it  is  by  any  means  certain  that  they  do 
not.  It  seems  clear  that  they  can  enter  into  each 
other's  feelings,  if  not  thoughts,  since  an  intim- 
acy of  the  most  touching  kind  exists  between  the 
man  and  inferior  creation,  to  whose  detriment  the 
rights  of  biological  priority  have  been  reversed. 

48 


BUENOS  AYRES  49 

I  should  like  to  pause  before  the  llamas,  used 
as  beasts  of  burden  to  carry  a  load  of  twenty- 
five  kilogrammes  apiece,  or  before  the  vicunas, 
whose  exquisite  feathery  fur  is  utilised  for  the 
motor-car,  and  whose  private  life  would  need 
to  be  told  in  Latin  by  reason  of  the  officious 
interference  of  the  Indian  in  matters  that  con- 
cern him  not  a  whit. 

M.  jOnelli  has  housed  the  more  prominent 
groups  in  palaces  in  the  style  of  architecture 
peculiar  to  their  native  land,  and  this  gives  to 
the  gardens  a  very  pleasing  aspect. 

But  first  let  us  enjoy  the  animals.  It  is 
amazing  to  see  the  two  monstrous  hippopotami 
leap  from  the  water  with  movements  of  ridicu- 
lous joyfulness  in  response  to  the  whistle  of 
their  governor-friend,  and,  on  a  sign  from  him, 
open  their  fearful  caverns  of  pink  jaws  bristling 
with  formidable  teeth  to  receive  with  the  utmost 
gratitude  three  blades  of  grass  which  they  could 
easily  cull  for  themselves  beneath  their  feet  if 
these  manifestations  of  joy  were  called  forth  by 
the  delicacy  and  not  by  friendship.  The  great 
beasts  became  human  at  sight  of  their  master, 
if-  one  may  thus  describe  ferocity. 


50  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

The  pnnriflr-fl  sort  of  yellow  panther  whose 
colour  has  apparently  won  for  him  the  name 
of  the  American  lion,  came  running  up  to  offer 
his  back  to  the  caressing  hand  of  his  friend  with 
a  hoarse  roar  that  seemed  to  express  rather 
helpless  rage  than  voluptuousness. 

The  puma  is  perhaps  the  Qommpnest  of  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  northern  provinces  of  the 
Argentine,  for  it  retreats  from  before  the  ap- 
proach of  man,  and  is  more  successful  than  the 
jaguar  or  the  panther  in  escaping  the  traps  or 
the  guns  of  the  hunter. 

M.  Edmond  Hilleret,  who  has  killed  several, 
told  me  that  at  Santa  Ana,  near  Tucuman,  it 
was  impossible  to  keep  a  flock  of  sheep,  as  they 
were  always  devoured  by  the  pumas  in  spite  of 
all  the  efforts  he  made  to  protect  them.  "  Yet," 
he  added,  "notwithstanding  my  dogs  and  my 
peons  the  puma  can  never  be  seen.  He  is  quite 
a  rarity." 

After  a  short  palaver  with  some  delicious 
penguins  newly  arrived  from  the  southern  ice, 
with  their  young,  which  would  die  of  spleen  if 
they  were  not  fed  with  a  forcing  pipe,  like  an 
English  suffragette,  we  pause  before  the  grey 


BUENOS  AY  RES  51 

ostrich  of  the  Pampas,  which  has  been  nearly 
exterminated  by  the  cruel  lasso  of  the  gaucho. 

The  grey  American  ostrich,  which  should  be 
safe  from  our  barbarous  ways  since  his  tail 
feathers  offer  no  attraction  for  ladies'  hats,  is 
interesting  by  certain  peculiarities  in  his  do- 
mestic habits.  To  the  male  is  left  the  duty  of 
hatching  the  eggs,  the  female  preferring  to 
stray.  By  way  of  compensation,  the  paternal 
instinct  is  the  more  keenly  developed  in  the 
father  in  proportion  as  the  mother — reprehen- 
sible bird! — neglects  her  duties.  Thus  before 
beginning  to  sit  on  the  eggs,  he  sets  carefully 
aside  two  or  three  of  them,  according  to  the 
number  of  young  to  be  hatched,  and  when  the 
little  ones  leave  their  shells,  he  opens  them  with 
a  sharp  blow  from  the  paternal  beak,  and 
spreads  in  the  sunshine  the  contents  of  the  eggs 
his  foresight  had  reserved;  the  appetising  dish 
attracts  thousands  of  flies  who  promptly  drown 
themselves  therein  to  make  the  first  meal  of  the 
fledglings.  Admirable  instance  of  the  contra- 
dictory processes  of  nature  designed  for  the 
preservation  of  existing  types. 

But  we  have  come  to  the  palace  of  the  ele- 


52  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

phants.  There  are  half  a  dozen  of  them  beneath 
a  vast  dome,  and  the  sight  of  M.  Onelli  rouses 
them  all.  The  heavy  grey  masses  sway  from 
side  to  side,  large  ears  beat  up  and  down, 
while  the  small  eyes  wink;  the  trunks  are  flung 
inquiringly  round,  eager  for  any  windfall.  One 
amiable  and  tame  elephant,  the  youthful  Fahda, 
born  on  the  place,  hustles  her  colossal  friends, 
to  clear  a  way  to  M.  Onelli,  who  talks  to  her 
affectionately,  but  is  unable  to  respond  as  he 
should  to  her  pressing  request  for  cakes.  The 
governor  gives  us  the  reason  of  their  friendliness. 

"  We  have  no  secrets  from  each  other,"  he 
remarks  gently. 

And  it  was  truer  than  he  thought,  for  the 
young  trunk  was  softly  introduced  into  his 
tempting  pocket,  and  brought  out  a  packet  of 
letters  which  were  forthwith  swallowed.  There- 
upon exclamations  as  late  as  fruitless  from  the 
victim,  who  thus  witnessed  the  disappearance  of 
his  correspondence  down  the  dark  passages  of 
an  unexpected  post-office  from  which  there  is 
no  hope  of  return.1 

1  One  word  about  M.  Onelli's  interesting  work,  A 
Travers  les  Andes,  an  accurate  account  of  his  journey  in 


BUENOS  AYRES  53 

M.  Onelli  kindly  offered  us  a  few  minutes' 
rest  in  his  own  salon.  But  what  did  we  find 
there?  The  housemaid  who  opened  the  door  to 
us  carried  a  young  puma  in  her  arms,  and  I 
know  not  what  sort  of  hairy  beast  on  her  back. 
The  gnashing  of  white  teeth  proceeded  from 
under  the  chairs  and  coiled  serpents  lay  in  the 
easy-chairs.  Indeed,  we  were  not  the  least 
tired !  Palermo  must  ^be  jrisited. 

The  celebrated  promenade  starts  nobly  at  the 
Recoleta,  where  the  lawns  and  groves  are  seen 
in  a  setting  of  harmonious  architecture.  Car- 
Patagonia.  When  describing  to  me  the  customs  of  the 
natives,  he  was  good  enough  to  promise  me  a  few  arrow- 
heads collected  in  the  course  of  his  expedition.  They 
reached  me  the  following  day  with  this  letter: 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, — After  rummaging  amongst  my  drawers, 
I  finally  found  the  arrowheads  you  wanted.  The  book 
which  accompanies  them,  a  humble  homage  to  yourself, 
describes  the  places  in  which  I  found  them.  If  you  are 
good  enough  to  glance  at  it  you  will  find  several  photo- 
graphs of  the  descendants  of  the  makers  of  these  arrows. 
The  Tchuleches  Indians,  who  to  the  number  of  rather 
more  than  2000  live  in  the  southern  half  of  Patagonia, 
say,  when  shown  one  of  these  arrowheads,  which  are  to 
be  found  all  over  the  arid  plateau  they  inhabit,  that  they 
were  the  usual  weapon  of  the  Indians  of  olden  times 
who  travelled  on  foot.  We  know  that  they  did  not  know 
the  horse  until  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  at  most, 
and,  in  fact,  one  may  say  that  the  Stone  Age  represented 
by  these  arrowheads  only  ended  in  Patagonia  a  half- 


54  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

riages  of  the  most  correct  British  style,  drawn 
by  superb  horses,  and  noisy  motor-cars  dash 
swiftly  by.  But  for  the  groups  of  exotic  trees 
one  might  be  in  the  Bois.  Palermo  begins  well. 
Unfortunately,  we  suddenly  find  before  us  an 
avenue  of  sickly  coco-palms,  whose  bare  trunks 
are  covered  with  dead  leaves,  giving  an  unpleas- 
ing  perspective  of  broom-handles.  This  tree, 
which  is  so  fine  in  Brazil,  is  not  in  its  element 
here.  When  planted  in  rows,  even  in  the  streets 
of  Rio,  it  is  more  surprising  than  beautiful.  It 
is  in  groves  that  it  best  displays  its  full  decora- 


century  ago.  The  arrows  to  be  found  in  Patagonia 
demonstrate  in  a  contrary  manner  the  influence  of  civil- 
ised industries,  since  the  heads  the  most  clumsily  made 
are  the  most  modern.  The  Indians  lost  little  by  little 
the  art  of  making  them  when  they  learnt  to  make  the 
shafts  of  fragments  of  knife-blades,  or  of  iron  obtained 
from  the  Christians,  and  since  then  they  have  completely 
abandoned  the  work  to  adopt  firearms.  In  the  prepara- 
tion of  guanaco  skins,  the  Indian  women,  naturally  more 
conservative  than  the  men,  still  use  the  old  system  of 
scraping  the  under  side  of  the  leather  with  scrapers 
made  of  stone,  in  every  way  similar  to  the  tool  used  by 
prehistoric  man  in  European  lands.  Nowadays,  having 
no  means  of  making  them,  they  search  in  their  leisure 
moments  in  the  ancient  dwellings  of  their  forefathers  in 
order  to  find  a  flint  scraper,  which  they  carefully  use 
and  preserve. 
"  The  arrow  age  still  subsists  in  the  north  of  the  Repub- 


BUENOS  AYRES  55 

live  qualities.  I  take  the  liberty  of  suggesting 
that  M.  Thays  should  pull  up  the  horticultural 
invalids  and  plant  eucalyptus  or  some  other 
species  in  their  place. 

But  we  are  not  yet  at  the  end  of  our  troubles. 
Less  than  two  hundred  yards  down,  the  railway 
traverses  the  avenue  on  a  level  crossing.  A  gate, 
generally  closed,  a  turnstile  for  pedestrians,  a 
station,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  After  a  wait  of 
ten  minutes,  the  train  duly  passes,  and  then  the 
motor-car  plunges  into  a  roadway,  full  of  ruts, 
leading  to  a  dark  archway  which  carries  another 

lie  among  the  Indians  of  the  Chaco  forests.  Their  arrows  are 
made  of  hard  wood.  On  alluvial  soils  no  flint  can  be  found, 
just  as  none  can  be  had  in  the  province  of  Santa  Fe, 
and  nearly  throughout  the  whole  of  the  province  of  Buenos 
Ay  res  (a  region  larger  than  all  France),  without  a 
single  pebble! — a  fact  which  renders  it  extremely  diffi-1 
cult  to  keep  up  good  roads  across  a  flat  country  of  crum-j 
bling  soil  without  lime.  The  highway  is  turned  into  soft! 
mud  by  traffic  and  rain;  yet  observe  the  enormous  increase! 
of  railway  lines. 

"  As  for  the  art  of  making  arrowheads,  the  Stone  Age 
still  reigns  among  the  Onas  and  Lakaluf,  natives  of 
Terra  del  Fuego;  but  alas!  the  art  has  degenerated.  The 
natives  of  the  seacoast,  always  on  the  lookout  for  a 
whale,  dead  or  wounded,  and  for  fragments  of  wrecks 
of  sailing  vessels  rounding  Cape  Horn,  have  discovered 
that  bottle  glass  is  the  easiest  material  to  work  upon 
for  their  arrows,  and  their  poor  language  is  thus  en- 


56  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

railway  across  the  promenade,  making  an  ugly 
blot  on  the  landscape.  And  now  we  reach  a 
further  marshy  road,  bordered  with  young  plan- 
tations, which  leads  across  a  leafless  wood  di- 
viding the  railway  track  from  the  estuary  of 
La  Plata. 

A  succession  of  trains  on  one  hand,  and  a 
muddy  yellow  sea  on  the  other :  as  a  view  it  is 
not  romantic.  Gangs  of  labourers  are  at  work 
on  the  roads,  which  are  badly  in  need  of  their 
attentions.  No  doubt  some  day  this  will  be  a 
superb  promenade.  It  is  only  a  question  of 

riched  with  a  new  word ;  to  express  '  glass '  they  say 
'  hotel/  by  the  natural  quid  pro  quo  of  a  tongue  which 
in  adopting  a  new  word  confuses  the  name  of  the  object 
with  that  of  the  material  of  which  it  is  made. 

"  The  opaque  black  arrowhead  is  of  basalt,  the  most 
abundant  kind  of  rock  in  Patagonia,  but  also  the  most 
difficult  to  use  in  the  manufacture  of  such  small  objects. 
Obsidian — the  little  black  point  of  flint — is  more  generally 
used. 

"  The  twisted  forms  are  moulds  of  flint  of  the  inside  of 
a  tertiary  fossil  mollusc,  the  '  turritella/  very  common  in 
the  strata  of  the  Rio  Santa  Cruz  cliffs,  and  which  Indian 
women  often  wear  as  ornaments.  In  the  hope  you  will 
excuse  my  bad  French,  since  I  have  had  the  presumption 
to  write  direct  to  you  instead  of  being  translated  into 
good  French, 

"  I  am,  my  dear  sir,  yours,  etc., 

"  CLEMENT  ONELLI." 


BUENOS  AYRES  57 

making  it,  and  the  first  step  must  be  to  clear 
away  the  railway-lines  with  their  embankments 
and  bridges.  This  is  probably  the  intention,  since 
I  was  assured  that  the  level  crossing  would 
shortly  be  swept  away.  That  will  be  a  begin- 
ning. M.  Bouvard  is  not  likely  to  overlook  the 
importance  of  the  matter.  My  only  fear  is  lest 
the  situation  should  make  it  impossible  for 
Palermo  ever  to  attain  to  imposing  proportions. 
But  one  thing  is  certain,  if  M.  Thays  can  get 
a  free  hand,  the  city  will  not  lack  a  park  worthy 
the  capital  of  the  Republic. 

Nee#  I  say  that  squares  and  parks  alike  are 
superabundantly  decorated  with  sculpture  and 
monuments  both  open  to  criticism?  There  is 
noJthmg._mQre  natural  to  a  young  people  than  a 
desire  to  acquire  great  men  in  every  department 
as  early  as  possible.  Yet  idealism  that  is  to  be 
materialised  must,  one  would  think,  have  its 
base  set  solidly  on  established  facts.  In  a  coun- 
try whose  population  offers  a  mixture  of  all  the 
Latin  races,  art  could  not  fail  to  flourish.  It 
will  free  itself  from  its  crust  as  fast  as  public 
taste  is  purified.  Works  such  as  those  of  M. 
Paul  Groussac,  or  the  fine  novel  by  M.  Enrique 


58  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Rodrigues  Larreta,1  the  distinguished  Minister 
of  the  Argentine  Republic  in  Paris,  are  evidences 
of  the  development  of  literary  taste  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.2 

The  sculptor  does  not  appear  to  have  reached 
quite  the  same  point,  but  I  hasten  to  add,  for 
the  sake  of  justice,  that  our  own  hewers  of 
marble,  with  a  very  few  prominent  exceptions, 
expose  nothing  in  Buenos  Ayres  which  is  cal- 
culated to  throw  into  too  dark  a  shade  their 
confreres  of  across  the  ocean. 

France,  Italy,  and  Spain  supply  some  fairly 
fine  statuary  for  the  Latin  confraternity.  But, 
as  might  be  readily  imagined,  a  legitimate  desire 

1  La  Gloire  de  Don  Ramire. 

2 1  quote  these  two  names  because  they  are  best  known 
among  us  in  France.  But  Argentine  literature  cannot  be 
dismissed  in  a  word.  The  struggle  for  independence  could 
not  fail  to  inspire  songs  to  be  caught  up  from  ear  to 
ear  and  sung  everywhere,  and  in  the  same  way  the  spread 
of  education  has  naturally  turned  many  minds  to  literary 
composition.  The  struggle  with  the  metropolis  and  the 
flame  of  civil  war  irresistibly  impelled  the  individual  into 
the  arena  to  take  public  action,  and  from  the  vortex 
there  issued  a  new  nationality.  It  is  from  such  a  period 
of  strife  that  the  first  history  of  a  people  takes  its 
origin,  and  the  record  of  deeds  wrought  under  the  in- 
fluence of  such  excitement  is  the  material  from  which  a 
nation's  archives  are  derived,  fixing  for  ever  the  memory 
of  actions  that  will  be  revered  by  the  generations  to  come. 


BUENOS  AYRES 


to  write  history  on  every  square  and  market- 
place has  given  a  profusion  of  monuments  to 
soldiers  and  politicians.  The  same  mania  has 
been  pushed  to  such  extremes  in  our  own  land 
that  it  would  ill  become  me  to  make  it  a  subject 
of  reproach  to  others;  nevertheless  it  behoves 
us  to  acknowledge  that  the  Argentine  Republic 
has,  both  in  times  of  war  and  of  peace,  produced 
some  great  men.  It  suffices  to  mention  the 
names  of  San  Martin  (whose  statue  is  being 
raised  at  Boulogne-sur-Mer  and  at  Buenos 
Ayres)  and  of  Sarmiento. 

If  genius  were  always  at  the  disposal  of  Gov- 
ernments, the  wish  to  perpetuate  to  all  eternity 

In  this  way,  the  noble  harangues  of  Moriano  Moreno  to 
the  Provisional  Government,  the  eloquent  proclamations 
made  by  General  Belgrano  after  the  battles  of  Salta  and 
Tucuman,  the  noble  letters  of  San  Martin  are  impressive 
lessons  for  all  humanity;  time  can  have  no  effect  on  the 
exalted  nobility  of  thought  and  artistic  mode  of  expres- 
sion that  are  here  held  up  before  us.  Under  the  savage 
dictatorship  of  Rosas,  all  voices  were  silenced.  Still, 
Sarmiento  from  his  exile  in  Chili  launched  from  the 
heights  of  the  Andes  his  virulent  pamphlets  against  the 
odious  tyrant.  When  liberty  was  regained,  Press  and 
rostrum  sent  forth  a  legion  of  writers  and  orators,  at 
whose  head  we  must  place  Bartolome  Mitre  and  Nicolas 
Avellaneda.  To  come  down  to  our  own  time,  the  list  of 
distinguished  writers  meriting  each  a  special  notice  would 
be  long  indeed. 


60  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  renown  a  single  day  had  won  for  them  might 
readily  be  pardoned.  But  men  of  genius  are 
rare,  and  they  are  apt  to  make  mistakes  like 
other  men.  And  for  the  rest,  the  statues  that 
are  put  up  to  their  memory  serve  merely  to  in- 
spire in  our  breasts  a  few  philosophic  reflections 
on  the  danger  of  a  permanent  propaganda  of 
mediocrity!  Besides,  the  sculptor  has  this  de- 
fect— that  he  forces  himself  on  the  attention  of 
the  passer-by.  We  are  not  compelled  to  pur- 
chase a  poor  book  or  to  go  into  ecstasies  over 
all  the  Chauchard  collection,  whereas  we  are  un- 
able to  avoid  the  sight  of  the  statue  of  Two- 
shoes  by  Thingummy.  My  only  consolation  is 
that  such  monuments  will  not  prevent  the  advent 
of  other  supermen  in  the  future,  who,  like  those 
of  the  past,  will  raise  their  own  monuments  in 
a  surer  and  better  manner  by  their  own  glorious 
achievements. 

But  it  is  time  to  leave  these  men  of  marble 
and  come  to  the  living,  of  whom  I  have  so  far 
said  not  a  word.  My  remark  as  to  the  Euro- 
pean aspect  of  Buenos  Ayres  at  first  sight  must 
be  taken  as  referring  merely  to  its  outdoor  life. 
I  do  not  speak  of  the  business  quarter,  which  is 


BUENOS  AYRES  61 

the  same  in  all  countries.  The  man  who  is 
glued  to  the  telegraph  wire  or  to  the  telephone, 
waiting  for  the  latest  quotations  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  globe  in  order  to  build  on  them  his 
own  careful  combinations,  is,  notwithstanding 
his  patriotism,  an  international  type  whose 
world-wide  business  connection  must  in  time 
modify  his  own  characteristics  and  make  of  him 
the  universal  species  of  merchant. 

At  the  same  time,  the  population  of  any  large 
European  city,  while  preserving  in  its  general 
outline  the  special  characteristic  evolved  by  its 
own  history,  does  yet  show  a  certain  trend  in 
the  direction  of  some  well-defined  types  of 
modern  activity  whose  attributes  are  the  out- 
come of  natural  conditions  of  civilisation  the 
world  over.  But  when  transplanted  outside 
Europe,  the  original  characteristics  are  inevi- 
tably modified  by  the  new  environment,  and  the 
result  will  be  a  striking  differentiation — North 
America  is  an  example  of  this. 

In  the  eyes  of  our  ancient  Europe,  with  its 
venerable  traditions  and  its  base  of  primeval 
prejudice,  the  man  who  ventures  to  strike  a  new 
root  in  a  colony  beyond  the  sea  will  have  to 


62  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

expiate  his  new  prosperity  by  some  extrava- 
gances which  will  expose  him  to  the  fire  of  the 
satirical  pressman  or  playwright.  This  is  the 
reason  why  South  America,  having  undoubtedly 
borne  in  common  with  every  country  of  Europe 
some  few  fantastic  types  of  high  and  of  low 
ideals,  suddenly  finds  herself  represented  to  the 
public,  for  the  greater  entertainment  of  the 
boulevard,  as  being  exclusively  peopled  with 
those  strange  creatures  we  have  christened 
rastaquoneres,  whose  privilege  it  is  to  lead  a 
life  that  is  ever  at  variance  with  all  the  laws 
of  common-sense. 

If  all  we  ask  is  a  joke  at  the  expense  of  our 
neighbours,  the  Gauls  of  Paris  may  give  rein 
to  their  wit.  Still,  it  may  be  useful  for  us  all 
to  know  that  these  so-called  rastaquoueres,  leav- 
ing to  petty  tyrants  the  whole  field  of  ancient 
history,  have  not  only  secured  to  their  country 
by  their  steady  labour  its  present  prosperity, 
but  have  also  founded  in  their  new  domain  a 
European  civilisation  which  is  no  whit  inferior 
in  inspiration  to  that  which  we  are  for  ever 
vaunting.  They  learn  our  languages,  invade 
our  colleges,  absorb  our  ideas  and  our  methods, 


BUENOS  AYRES  63 

and  passing  from  France  to  Germany  and  Eng- 
land, draw  useful  comparisons  as  to  the  results 
obtained. 

We  are  pleased  to  judge  them  more  or  less 
lightly.  Let  us  not  forget  that  we  in  our  turn 
are  judged  by  them.  And  while  we  waste  our 
time  quarrelling  about  individuals  and  names, 
they  are  directing  a  steady  effort  toward  taking 
from  each  country  of  Europe  what  it  has  of  the 
best,  in  order  to  build  up  over  yonder  on  a 
solid  base  a  new  community  which  will  some 
day  be  so  much  the  more  formidable  that 
its  own  economic  force  will  perhaps  have  as 
a  counterbalance  the  complications  of  a  Euro- 
pean situation  that  is  not  tending  toward 
solution. 

In  spite  of  everything,  France  has  managed 
to  maintain  so  far  friendly  and  sympathetic 
relations  with  the  Kepublic.  Latin  idealism 
keeps  these  South  American  nations  ever  facing 
toward  those  great  modern  peoples  that  have 
sprung  from  the  Roman  conquest.  I  cannot 
say  I  think  we  have  drawn  from  this  favourable 
condition  of  things  all  the  advantage  we  might 
have  derived  from  it,  both  for  the  youthful 


64  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Republics  and  for  our  Latinity,  which  is  being 
steadily  drained  by  the  huge  task  of  civilisation 
and  by  the  vigorous  onslaught  that  it  is  called 
on  to  sustain  from  the  systematic  activity  of  the 
Northern  races.  ^t\^^L  (^ 

The  great  Anglo-Saxon  Republic  of  North 
America,  tempered  byjthe  same  Latin  idealism 
imported  in  the  eighteenth  century  from  France 
by  Jefferson,  is  making  of  a  continent  a  modern 
nation  whose  influence  will  count  more  and  more 
in  the  affairs  of  the  globe.  May  it  not  be  that 
South  America,  whose  evolution  is  the  result  of 
lessons  taught  to  some  extent  by  the  Northern 
races,  will  give  us  a  new  development  of  Latin 
civilisation  corresponding  to  that  which  has  so 
powerfully  contributed  to  the  making  of  Europe 
as  we  know  it?  It  is  here  no  question  obviously 
of  an  organised  rivalry  of  hostile  forces  between 
two  great  American  peoples,  who  must  surely 
be  destined  both  by  reason  of  their  geographical 
situation,  as  also  by  mental  affinities,  to  unite 
their  strength  to  attain  to  loftier  heights.  The 
problem,  which  ought  not  to  be  shirked  by 
France,  will  be  henceforth  to  maintain  in  the 
pacific  evolution  of  these  communities  the  neces- 


BUENOS  AYRES  65 

sary  proportion   of  idealism  which  she  had  a 
large  share  in  planting  there. 

In  following  such  a  train  of  thought,  how  can 
we  help  pausing  for  an  instant  to  consider  the 
Pan-American  Congress  which  so  fitly  closed  the 
splendid  exhibition  of  the  Argentine  centenary? 
With  the  sole  exception  of  Bolivia,  every  repub- 
lic of  South  America  sent  a  representative  to 
the  palace  of  the  Congress  to  discuss  their  com- 
mon interests — an  imposing  assembly,  which  in 
the  dignity  of  its  debates  can  bear  comparison 
with  any  Upper  Chamber  of  the  Continent  of 
Europe.  For  my  part,  I  sought  in  vain  for 
one  of  those  excitable  natures,  ever  ripe  for  ex- 
plosion— the  fruit,  according  to  tradition,  of 
equatorial  soil.  I  found  only  jurisconsults,  his- 
torians, men  of  letters  or  of  science,  giving  their 
opinions  in  courteous  language,  whose  example 
might  with  advantage  be  followed  by  many  an 
orator  in  the  Old  Continent.  Not,  of  course, 
that  passions  were  wholly  absent  from  these  de- 
bates. In  these  new  countries,  where  the 
strength  of  youth  finds  a  free  field  for  its  dis- 
play, and  where  revolution  and  war  are  the  chief 
traditions  of  the  race,  warmth  of  feeling  has 
s 


66  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

too  frequently  transformed  the  political  arena 
into  a  field  of  battle.  But  by  degrees,  as  the 
community  takes  form  and  acquires  greater 
weight  in  every  domain  of  public  life,  there 
grows  up  an  imperious  need  of  organised  action, 
and  the  youthful  democrats- themselves  end  by 
realising  that  a  people  can  only  govern  itself 
when  its  citizens  have  proved  themselves  capable 
of  self-discipline. 

Of  all  tEer  problems  which  might  naturally 
present  themselves  in  a  Pan-American  Congress, 
those  that  might  be  expected  to  call  forth  im- 
placable opposition  were  rigorously  eliminated. 
An  exchange  of  views  took  place,  and  each  dele- 
gate was  able  to  report  to  his  principals  a  num- 
ber of  conclusions  calculated  to  pave  the  way 
to  future  understandings. 

When  the  Congress  threw  out  the  proposal 
to  generalise  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  apply  its 
principle  to  the  whole  of  the  South  American 
continent,  the  representative  of  a  large  State 
said  to  me: 

"  We  shall  separate  without  accomplishing 
anything." 

"  It  is  already  much  to  have  avoided  all  con- 


BUENOS  AYRES  67 

flict,"  I  replied,  "  and  if  you  had  really  accom- 
plished nothing  you  would  still  have  been  useful 
in  that  you  had  met,  talked  together,  understood 
one  another,  and  parted  on  good  terms." 

Perhaps  the  man  whose  position  was  the  most 
delicate  of  all  was  Mr..  Henry  White,  the  dele- 
gate of  the  great  northern  Republic,  and  the 
distinguished  diplomat  so  popular  in  Parisian 
society,  who  contributed  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power  towards  finding  an  equitable  solution  of 
the  Franco-German  conflict  at  the  Algeciras 
Conference.  At  the  Congress  of  Buenos  Ayres, 
the  delegate  of  Washington  had,  like  the  repre- 
sentative of  Uruguay,  one  vote  only,  and  his 
efforts  were  directed  to  making  his  collaborators 
forget  that  he  was  a  "  big  brother,"  a  very  big 
brother,  faintly  suspected  of  tendencies  towards 
an  hegemony.  It  took  all  the  gracious  affability 
of  Mr.  White  to  disarm  the  distrust  aroused 
more  especially  by  the  proposal  to  place  South- 
ern America  under  the  banner  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  and  thus  the  Congress  could  be  dis- 
solved without  a  word  of  any  but  good-will 
and  American  brotherhood. 

The  Pan-American  Congress  was  the  natural 


68  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

outcome  of  the  great  international  exhibition  by 
which  the  Argentine  Republic  celebrated  the  cen- 
tenary of  its  independence.  The  great  fairs  of 
older  times  existed  with  very  good  reason. 
There  was  every  advantage  to  be  gained  by 
bringing  together  at  stated  times  the  produce 
of  different  districts  at  a  period  of  the  world's 
history  when  the  deficiency  of  means  of  com- 
munication placed  insurmountable  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  producer,  merchant,  and  consumer. 
To-day,  thanks  to  steampower,  every  city  in  the 
world  offers  a  permanent  exhibition  adapted  to 
the  needs  of  its  public,  and  the  traveller  wastes 
his  time  when  he  endeavours  to  bring  back  from 
his  journeys  some  article  unknown  to  his  coun- 
trymen. For  this  reason  the  finest  of  inter- 
national exhibitions  can  reserve  no  surprises  to 
its  visitors.  And  as  for  experts,  or  specialists 
in  any  branch  of  commerce  or  industry,  he  is 
to  be  pitied  who  awaits  the  opening  of  one  of 
these  universal  bazaars  in  order  to  obtain  in- 
formation on  some  detail  of  his  business. 

There  remain  evidently  the  amusements  and 
entertainments  which  in  such  gatherings  are 
naturally  intended  to  arouse  the  pleasure-loving 


BUENOS  AYRES  69 

instincts  of  crowds.  But  civilisation  has  pretty 
well  surfeited  us  with  such  amusements,  which 
are  now  better  calculated  to  tempt  than  to 
satisfy  us.  And  when  the  friendly  city  that 
summons  us  to  such  a  show  is  situated  11,000 
kilometres  from  our  shores,  it  requires  a  more 
powerful  attraction  than  this  of  the  "  already 
seen  "  to  induce  us  to  undertake  the  expedition. 
For  all  these  reasons  and  without  seeking  any 
others  the  Buenos  Ay  res  Exhibition  could  not 
be  a  success  either  in  the  way  of  money  or  of 
the  concourse  of  peoples.  An  unfortunate  and 
ultra-modern  strike  retarded  the  arrangements 
to  such  a  point  that  on  the  anniversary  day,  May 
25th,  only  the  section  of  ganaderia  (cattle- 
breeding)  was  ready.  Notwithstanding  a  multi- 
tude of  difficulties,  pavilions  were  put  up,  in 
which  were  amassed  and  docketed  in  the  usual 
fashion  some  of  those  products  which  the  greed 
for  gold  brings  to  all  the  depots  of  the  world. 
A  few  special  side-shows  were  remarkably  suc- 
cessful. Of  these  may  be  mentioned  the  English 
exhibit  of  the  railway  industry  and  the  German 
section  of  electricity.  Some  of  the  buildings 
were  never  completed,  as  that  of  the  Spanish 


70  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

section.  France,  I  regret  to  say,  did  not  dis- 
tinguish herself.  The  omission  is  inconceivable 
when  one  considers  what  a  market  might  in  this 
way  have  been  found  for  our  manufactures. 
Apart  from  some  interesting  displays  by  dress- 
makers, jewellers,  and  goldsmiths,  exhibited  in 
a  tasteful  pavilion  slightly  resembling  Bagatelle, 
and  called  the  Palace  of  Applied  Art,  we  found 
nothing  to  send.  I  admit  that  for  France  this 
was  not  sufficient.  England,  however,  exhibited 
a  magnificent  State  railway-carriage — said  to  be 
worth  two  millions — which  she  presented  to  the 
President  of  the  Kepublic.  It  is  a  luxury  that 
the  English  might  very  well  permit  themselves, 
since  almost  all  the  railways  of  the  Argentine 
are  in  their  hands.  And  why,  if  you  please? 
/Because  the  engineer  who  one  day  invited 
tenders  for  the  construction  of  the  first  Argen- 
tine railway-line  found  in  Paris  no  support,  and 
from  our  capital  (I  have  it  from  his  own  lips) 
he  turned  to  London,  where  the  enterprise  was 
carried  to  colossal  proportions./ 

We  could  hardly  help  being  represented  in 
the  art  and  sculpture  pavilions.  I  can  honestly 
say  that  our  exhibit,  well-organised,  was 


BUENOS  AYRES  71 

highly  creditable  to  the  nation.  But,  without 
any  tremendous  effort,  we  might  have  done  much 
better!  We  reckoned,  perhaps,  on  the  Argen- 
tine millioTiflirps  coming  to  Paris  to  look  for 
the  works  we  failed  to  exhibit  in  their  capital. 
If  only  millionaires  were  concerned,  I  should 
say  nothing.  But  it  is  precisely  because  the 
art  education  of  the  Argentine  people  is  as  yet 
rudimentary,  as  might  also  be  said  of  more  than 
one  nation  in  ancient  Europe,  that  we  ought  to 
have  attempted  to  arouse  a  wider  public  interest 
instead  of  appealing  merely  to  connoisseurs,  who 
are  in  the  habit  of  getting  what  they  want  in 
the  picture-galleries  of  the  Old  World.  Some 
excellent  examples  were  shown,  no  doubt;  that 
was  the  least  we  could  do.  Our  home  artists 
would  not  risk  the  experiment  of  creating  a 
kind  of  exhibition-museum,  which  might  have 
been  a  revelation  of  French  art  and  have  had 
the  effect  of  arousing  the  need  of  the  Beautiful 
which  is  latent  in  every  nation,  and  at  the  same 
time  inviting  that  intelligent  criticism  which  is 
a  powerful  factor  in  the  development  of  taste 
in  connoisseurs. 

There  is  no  art  museum  worthy  the  name  in 


72  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  Argentine  Republic.  You  must  exist  before 
you  can  add  adornment.  If,  however,  I  may 
judge  by  what  I  saw  in  a  few  private  galleries, 
the  time  is  at  hand  when  the  need  for  large 
art  collections  will  be  fully  acknowledged  in  the 
south  as  it  is  now  in  the  north;  there,  forty 
years  ago,  I  know  by  personal  observation  that 
the  ground  was  less  fully  prepared  than  it  is 
to-day  in  the  Argentine,  while  now  we  see  the 
treasures  of  Europe  being  eagerly  bought  up 
in  order  that  the  New  World  may  soon  vie  with 
the  Old  on  this  point. 

I  must  not  omit  to  say  a  word  on  the  retro- 
spective exhibit  of  "colonial  days."  A  cente- 
nary celebration  implies  a  history  and  a  past, 
and  this  history  is  remarkably  well  illustrated 
by  the  instruments  of  civilisation  now  in  the 
hands  of  the  founders.  What  a  contrast  there 
is  between  the  more  than  sumptuous  railway- 
carriage  of  which  I  spoke  just  now  and  the 
archaic  coaches,  fat-bellied  barouches,  and  Mero- 
vingian chariots  which  used  to  pick  a  painful 
way  across  the  pathless  Pampas,  transporting 
from  plantation  to  plantation  families  that  had 
but  little  prospect  of  ever  amassing  more  than 


BUENOS  AYRES  73 

they  needed  for  a  bare  daily  life.  Utensils  of 
the  simplest,  bespeaking  a  time  when  wood  was 
scarce.  Weapons  of  the  clumsiest,  undressed 
skins  as  a  protection  from  the  occasional  blasts 
of  the  pampero.  In  a  period  when  the  horse 
was  the  universal  means  of  locomotion — he  still 
is  as  a  matter  of  fact,  to  a  very  great  extent, 
since  in  the  country  the  little  children  must 
mount  their  ponies  to  go  to  school — the  equip- 
ment of  the  horseman  was  a  pompous  bedizen- 
ment  in  Spanish  guise,  from  his  heavy  brass 
ornaments  to  the  rowels  of  monstrous  spurs. 
All  this  belongs  to  the  ancient  times  of  scarcely 
fifty  years  ago,  and  when  you  meet  a  gaucho  on 
his  thick-set  horse,  his  feet  in  weighty  wooden 
stirrups  hanging  vertically  like  wheels,  you  real- 
ise that  the  modern  miracle  of  iron  roads  has 
not  been  able  to  entirely  wipe  out  the  primitive 
machinery  of  a  world  of  colonists. 

The  section  of  Argentine  produce — cattle, 
timber,  plants,  fruits,  cereals,  etc. — is  specially 
interesting  to  foreigners.  To  describe  it  would 
be  to  write  the  economic  history  of  the  land. 
I  heard  on  all  sides  that  the  cattle  exhibits  were 
exceptionally  fine.  I  am  not  astonished,  now 


74  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

that  I  have  seen  in  the  shows  and  on  the 
estancias  (farms)  the  finest  of  stock  for  breed- 
ing purposes.  We  know  that  out  on  the  Pampas 
the  rearing  of  horses  and  horned  cattle  as  well 
as  of  sheep  has  developed  enormously.  I  shall 
have  occasion  presently  to  return  to  the  sub- 
ject when  I  speak  of  the  famous  freezing- 
machines  which  supply  the  English  markets 
with  meat  slaughtered  in  Buenos  Ayres — to  say 
nothing  of  the  live  cattle  exported.  The  only 
detail  that  I  shall  give  here  is  that  the  event 
of  the  day  has  been  the  purchase  by  a  meat- 
freezing  company  of  five  oxen  for  beef  at  the^ 
price  of  25,000  francs  apiece  (£1000).  This 
looks  like  madness,  and  perhaps  it  is.  We  are 
beginning  to  learn  in  Europe  to  what  point  the 
craze  for  advertisement  is  carried  by  Americans. 
I  only  quote  this  fact  because  it  throws  more 
light  on  certain  traits  of  character  than  any 
number  of  traveller's  tales  could  dop^yv*^0 

Grain-growing — wheat  and  maize — like  that 
of  flax  (of  which  they  burn  the  stalks  for  want 
of  knowing  how  to  utilise  them)  has  recently 
grown  enormously.  I  shall  return  to  this  sub- 
ject also  later  on,  when  I  speak  of  the  Pampas, 


BUENOS  AYRES  75 

with  their  immense  stretch  of  arable  land  be- 
tween the  Andes  and  the  sea,  yielding  every  kind 
of  harvest  without  manure  and  almost  without 
labour.  Wherever  the  locomotive  makes  its  ap- 
pearance there  blossoms  forth  a  fertile  strip  of 
country  on  either  side  of  the  line,  which  on  the 
plan  of  the  administrators  symbolises  an  instant 
rise  in  value  of  the  property  whose  produce  has 
henceforth  a  quick  means  of  transport  to  its 
market.  Had  I  not  firmly  resolved  to  abstain 
from  quoting  figures  and  facts  cut  out  of  books 
of  statistics,  I  could  easily  dazzle  the  reader  by 
showing  him  the  fantastic  increase  in  the  crops 
of  maize  alone,  standing  in  gigantic  ricks  round 
the  estancias,  pending  the  moment  when  they 
will  be  handed  over  to  the  gigantic  elevators 
to  be  flung  on  board  the  English  and  German 
cargo-boats. 

Strolling  through  the  galleries  in  which  are 
accumulated,  the  exhibits  of  Argentine  agricul- 
tural produce,  you  are  forced  to  admire  the 
variety  of  species  yielded  by  a  soil  that  produces 
plover  two  and  a  half  yards  in  height!  I  say 
nothing  of  the  fruits  and  vegetables,  because  at 
that  season  of  the  year  I  could  not  try  them. 


76  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Neither  seemed  to  me  to  compete  with  European 
varieties.  As  for  the  tropical  fruits,  with  the 
exception  of  the  oranges  and  pines,  they  are 
astonishing,  I  confess,  but  I  cannot  give  them 
any  other  praise. 

In  the  section  of  Argentine  timber  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  front  rank  the  "  false  cedar "  and 
the  marvellous  quebracho,  of  which  I  have  al- 
ready spoken.  No  other  wood  can  be  compared 
with  this  in  respect  of  the  quantity  of  tannin 
it  contains.  For  this  reason  the  immense  forests 
of  the  northern  provinces  are  being  devastated 
to  supply  the  manufacturers.  Kailway-sleepers 
and  stakes  for  the  wire-fencing  that  marks  out 
the  immense  stretches  of  Pampas  are  the  prin- 
cipal employment  for  quebracho,  irrespective  of 
the  extraction  of  tannin.  As  the  demand  in- 
creases, and  the  idea  of  replanting  does  not 
seem  to  have  occurred  to  the  Argentines,  it  is 
reasonable  to  foresee  the  moment  when  the 
Government  of  the  Republic,  having  neglected 
to  husband  its  resources,  will  have  only  vain 
lamentations  to  offer  to  its  customers.  The  day 
may  be  far  distant;  I  do  not  dispute  it.  Such 
an  improvident  policy  is,  none  the  less,  reprehen- 


BUENOS  AYRES  77 

sible.  How  many  years,  moreover,  must  elapse 
between  the  planting  of  the  young  quebracho 
and  its  maturity?  Indeed,  the  same  remarks 
might  be  made  of  all  the  other  species  of  timber. 
When  you  have  seen  tree-trunks  that  were 
many  centuries  in  growth  falling  bit  by  bit  into 
the  maw  of  a  factory  furnace,  without  any  at- 
tempt being  made  to  replace  them,  when  you 
have  been  saddened  by  the  spectacle  of  the  mar- 
vellous Brazilian  forests  blazing  in  every  direc- 
tion to  make  room  for  coffee  plantations  that 
will  presently  spring  up  amongst  the  charred 
trunks,  you  realise  keenly  that  there  is  no  more 
urgent  need  in  these  great  countries  than  a  com- 
plete  organisation  of  forestry.  If  in  some 
parts  of  Brazil  the  soil  will  no  longer  yield 
freely  without  the  help  of  manure,  the  water 
system,  at  all  events,  remains  unchanged.  In 
the  Argentine  Pampas  the  case  is  very  different, 
for  the  reason  that  the  watercourses  disappear 
into  the  ground  before  reaching  the  sea.  When 
the  immense  forests  of  the  highlands  have  dis- 
appeared to  make  way  for  plateaux  open  to 
wind  and  sun,  can  we  doubt  but  that  the  al- 
ready terrible  scourge  of  drought  will  be  still 


78  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

further  aggravated,  and  its  disastrous  effects  on 
cattle  and  harvests  be  even  more  redoubtable 
than  they  are  at  present? 

I  must  resist  the  temptation  of  dwelling  on 
the  interesting  exhibits  of  the  South  American 
Eepublics.  I  should  never  finish.  Neither  must 
I  wander  any  farther  from  the  Argentine  capital 
to  set  down  reflections  that  will  more  fitly  sug- 
gest themselves  later.  Nevertheless  I  cannot 
leave  the  exhibition  without  mentioning  the 
extraordinary  establishment  in  which  the  Kural 
Society  holds  its  annual  cattle-shows — vast 
stables  and  stalls,  constructed  according  to  the 
latest  pattern  on  English  model  farms.  There 
is  accommodation  perhaps  for  more  than  500 
horned  cattle,  or  horses,  and  for  700  or  800 
probably  in  the  paddocks,  while  4000  sheep  can 
be  penned  under  a  single  roof,  the  whole  com- 
pleted by  an  enclosure  for  trials  with  seating 
accommodation  for  2000  persons. 

These  shows  take  place  every  year  in  October. 
They  are  closed  by  a  sale  at  which  the  beasts 
are  put  up  at  auction.  No  better  system  of 
gauging  the  progress  of  the  breeding  industry 
could  be  devised.  As  many  as  4000  animals 


BUENOS  AYRES  79 

have  been  brought  together  for  these  shows,  col- 
lected from  all  parts  of  the  country,  including 
stallions  of  the  best  breeds,  Durham  and  Here- 
fordshire cows,  to  say  nothing  of  pigs,  llamas, 
and  poultry.  Agricultural  machinery  and  dairy 
implements  also  find  a  place  here,  of  course. 

It  is  in  this  colossal  cattle-rearing  city  that 
the  greatest  effort  of  production  ever  made  has 
been  concentrated.  I  saw  at  Rosario  a  magnifi- 
cent cattle  showT.  But  the  great  Fair  of  Buenos 
Ayres  outdoes  anything  to  be  offered  elsewhere 
of  the  kind.  I  shall  have  to  return  to  the  sub- 
ject when  I  come  to  the  estancias  and  the  vast 
herds  that  belong  to  them.  Here  it  suffices  to 
note  that  the  Argentine  breeders  do  not  shrink 
from  any  expense  in  order  to  obtain  the  most 
perfect  stallions.  England  is,  of  course,  the 
chief  market  for  the  frozen  meat,  which  is  car- 
ried as  return  cargo  by  the  coaling-boats.  Nat- 
urally the  farmers  of  the  Pampas  endeavour  to 
suit  the  tastes  of  their  customers.  This  is  why 
the  finest  specimens  of  British  cattle-farms  find 
their  way  every  year  to  Buenos  Ayres.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  the  horse-breeders  have 
adopted  the  same  course,  though  full  justice  is 


80  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

done  to  the  qualities  of  French  breeds.  Still, 
the  English  breeder.Jbest  understands  how  to 
make  an  outlet  for  his  wares,  whilst  the  French 
prefers  to  sit  in  the  sunlm"T;he  plains  of  Caen 
to  wait  until  the  foreigner  comes  to  ask  him 
as  a  favour  for  his  animals. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FOREIGN    COLONISTS   IN   ARGENTINA 

|T  is  now  time  to  return  to  the  city 
to  get  a  little  better  acquainted 
with  its  inhabitants.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  features  upon  which 
I  have  touched — the  town,  port,  promenades, 
palaces,  settlers'  houses,  agricultural  products, 
manufactures,  or  commerce — do  more  or  less 
reveal  the  native,  and  although  I  have  said 
nothing  of  his  person  beyond  that  he  looks  very 
like  a  European,  my  reader  has  certainly  gath- 
ered some  light  as  to  his  way  of  living. 

To  the  Argentine  extra  muros,  the  citizen  of 
Bueaos- Ayresos  the  porteilo — that  is,  the  man 
of_the .port,  the  townsman  kept,  by  the  sea,  in 
constant  contact  with  Europe,  and  more  readily 
undertaking  a  trip  to  London  or  Paris  than  to 
Tucuman  or  Mendoza.  On  his  side,  while  pro- 
fessing great  esteem  for  the  provincials  (for  in 

6  81 


82  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  Argentine  patriotism  amounts  to  mania), 
the  porteno  is  inclined  to  pity  those  who  pass 
their  lives  far  from  the  capital;  while  the  coun- 
tryman mocks  good-humouredly  at  his  strange 
compatriot  who  knows  naught  of  the  Carney 
whence  are  brought  to  his  door  the  corn  and 
cattle  which  are  the  outcome  of  the  highest  and 
mightiest  efforts  of  their  common  national 
energy,  and  which  by  his  means  are  to  be  ex- 
changed for  European  produce  in  an  ever-widen- 
ing and  developing  trade. 

This  is,  however,  but  a  superficial  judgment 
that  we  may  permit  ourselves  to  make;  but  if 
we  look  more  closely  into  the  national  character, 
we  shall  perceive  that  if  the  porteno  is  the 
nearer  to  Europe  and  hastens  thither  on  the 
smallest  pretext;  if  he  is  more  thoroughly 
steeped  in  European  culture;  if  he  takes  more 
interest  in  the  doings  of  the  Old  World,  attach- 
ing the  greatest  importance  to  its  opinion  of  his 
own  country;  if  it  is  his  dearest  ambition  that 
the  youthful  Argentine  Eepublic  shall  comport 
herself  nobly  among  the  old  peoples  of  a  weary 
civilisation;  if  it  is  his  constant  care  to  obtain 
from  beyond  sea  the  advantages  gained  by  ex- 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    83 

perience,  to  be  turned  to  account  by  his  own 
nation — we  should  be  greatly  mistaken  in  assum- 
ing that  European  contact  or  descent  could  lead 
either  citizen  or  farmer,  porteno  or  estanciero,  to 
prefer  to  his  own  land  that  Old  Continent  which 
his  forefathers  deserted,  in  the  hope,  already 
realised,  of  finding  on  this  virgin  soil,  fertilised 
by  his  own  labour,  a  better  chance  of  success i 
thaji  the  Old  World  could  offer  him. 

While  the  physiognomy  of  the  streets  of 
Buenos  Ayres  is  wholly  European  in  symmetry, 
style,  and  even  in  the  expression  of  the  faces 
to  be  seen  thereon,  yet  tljis  people  is  Argentine 
to  the  very  marrow  of  the  bones — exclusively 
and  entirely  Argentine.  New  York  is  nearer  to 
Europe,  and  New  York  is  North  American  in 
essence  as  completely  as  Buenos  Ayres  is  Argen- 
tine. The  difference  is  that  in  New  York,  and 
even  in  Boston  or  Chicago,  North  American- 
ism is  patent  to  all  eyes  in  type,  in  carriage,  and 
in  voice,  as  much  as  in  feeling  and  manner  of 
thinking ;  whereas  the  piquancy  of  Buenos  Ayres 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  offers  the  spectacle  of 
rabid  Argentinism  under  a  European  veil.  And, 
strangely  enough,  this  inherent  jingoism,  which 


84  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

in  some  nations  that  shall  be  nameless  assumes 
so  easily  an  offensive  guise,  is  here  displayed 
with  an  amiable  candour  that  is  most  disarming, 
and  instinctively  you  seek  to  justify  it  to  your- 
self. Not  satisfied  with  being  Argentine  from 
top  to  toe,  these  people  will,  if  you  let  them, 
Argentinise  you  in  a  trice. 

To  tell  the  truth,  there  are  some  (I  have  met 
a  few)  who  speak  ill  of  the  country — and  these 
critics  are  people  who  have  not  even  had  the 
excuse  of  having  been  unsuccessful  in  their 
business  affairs  here.  (^There  are  systematic 
grumblers  everywhere,  who  endeavour  to  give 
themselves  importance  by  finding  fault  with 
their  surroundings?)  Those  who  are  not  pleased 
with  their  stay  in  a  foreign  country  should  re- 
mind themselves  that  nobody  prevents  them  from 
returning  to  their  own. 

~'  I  have  already  mentioned  that  many  Italians 
cross  the  sea  for  the  harvesting  in  the  Argen- 
tine, and  then,  taking  advantage  of  the  difference 
in  the  seasons,  return  home  to  cut  their  home 

corn.     This  backward  and  forward  movement 

~,^f~~~ 
has  grown   enormously.     But  in   the   long  run 

the  attraction   of  a  land  that  overflows  with 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    85 

energy  defeats  Atavistic  proclivities  and  weak- 
ens roots  that  are  centuries  old.  And  as  soon 
as  the  settler  has  become  the  owner  of  a  few 
roods  of  the  new  soil,  he  is  irrevocably  lost  to 
Europe. 

I  have  not  sought  to  conceal  the  fact  that  the 
largest  number  of  immigrants  make  the  mistake 
of  stopping  at  Buenos  Ayres,  whose  population 
is  thus  increased  out  of  all  proportion  with  the 
development  of  Argentine  territory.  This  mass 
of  working  people,  who  necessarily  remain  easily 
accessible  to  European  influences,  offers  appar- 
ently an  excellent  field  for  revolutionary  pro- 
pagandju__  Anarchists  and  socialists  spare  no 
pains  to  make  proselytes  here,  in  order  to 
strengthen  their  hands.  A  violence  of  speech 
and  action  has  in  this  way  given  to  certain 
strikes  a  truly  European  aspect.  Still,  in  a 
country  in  which  there  is  a  constant  supply  of 
work,  it  is  hardly  possible  that  disturbances 
arising  rather  from  doctrine  than  from  existing 
social  evils  can  take  any  hold  on  or  materially 
affect  any  considerable  extent  of  territory. 

If  I  am  to  believe  what  I  heard  in  all  parts, 
the  Russian  anarchists  have  a  specially  redoubt- 


86  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

able  organisation.  To  mention  only  the  most 
recent  of  events,  it  is  known  that  the  Chief 
of  Police,  who  had  directed  in  person  some 
ruthless  repressive  measures,  was  killed  in  the 
street  by  a  bomb  thrown  by  a  Russian,  who  was 
protected  from  the  full  severity  of  the  law  by 
his  tender  age.1 

Last  June,  a  few  days  before  I  left  Europe, 
a  bomb  was  thrown  by  some  unknown  person  in 
the  Colon  Theatre,  falling  in  the  middle  of  the 
orchestra  and  wounding  more  or  less  seriously 
a  large  number  of  persons.  The  Colon  Theatre, 
in  which  opera  is  given,  is  the  largest  and  per- 
haps the  handsomest  theatre  in  the  world.2  The 
open  boxes  of  the  pit  tier,  like  those  of  the  first 
two  tiers  and  orchestra,  present,  when  filled  with 
young  women  in  evening  dress,  the  most  brilliant 
spectacle  that  I  have  ever  seen  in  any  theatre. 
In  such  a  setting,  imagine  the  catastrophe  that 

1  The  death  penalty,  abolished  in  Uruguay,  does  still 
exist  in  the  Argentine  Republic,  but  executions  are  rare. 
The  last  dates  several  years  back.     The  condemned  man 
is  shot  by  the  troops. 

2  The  Colon  Theatre  seats  no  less  than  3570  persons. 
The  third  tier  is  reserved  for  ladies  only;  the  acoustics 
are  excellent;  the  most  renowned  artists  appear  on  its 
stage.     There  is  also  another  opera-house. 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    87 

could  be  caused  by  a  bomb ! *•  The  injured  were 
carried  out  somehow  or  other,  the  house  was 
emptied  amid  loud  and  furious  outcries,  and, 
the  damage  having  been  repaired  in  the  course 
of  the  following  day,  not  a  woman  in  society 
was  absent  from  her  place  at  the  performance 
of  the  evening.  This  is  a  very  fine  trait  of  char- 
acter which  does  the  highest  honour  to  the 
women  of  Argentine  society.  I  am  not  sure 
that  in  Paris,  under  similar  circumstances,  there 
would  have  been  a  full  house  on  the  night  fol- 
lowing such  a  disaster. 

It  is  easy  to  understand,  however,  that  the 
fury  of  the  public  found  expression  in  an  Act 
of  Parliament  of  terrible  severity,  directed  im- 
mediately against  any  suspicious  groups.  The 
criminal  in  the  present  case  has  not  yet  been 
discovered,  though  during  my  stay  in  Buenos 
Ayres  there  occurred  a  sensational  arrest  which 
led  the  authorities  to  believe  they  had  laid  hands 
on  the  guilty  man.  A  state  of  siege  was  in  some 
sense  declared,  lasting  all  the  time  I  was  in 

1  Impossible  to  exaggerate  the  horror  of  the  scene.  A 
high  official  personage  told  me  that  he  had  never  beheld 
such  pools  of  blood. 


88  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Buenos  Ayres;  and  the  Government  obtained 
extraordinary  powers,  to  be  used  only  against 
organisations  believed  to  be  anarchical.  The 
penalty  generally  imposed  was  transportation 
to  Terra  del  Fuego,  under  conditions  that  no 
one  would  or,  perhaps,  could  describe  to  me.  I 
am  without  the  necessary  returns  for  establish- 
ing the  results  obtained.  Some  complaints 
reached  me  from  the  more  populous  quarters 
affirming  that  the  innocent  had  been  punished; 
all  I  could  do  was  to  hand  them  over  to  the 
authorities.  I  can  testify  that  in  my  presence, 
in  any  of  the  circles  of  Buenos  Ayres  society 
that  I  was  able  to  observe,  no  anarchist  outrages 
were  on  any  single  occasion  the  subject  of  con- 
versation. More  than  once  I  led  up  to  it.  The 
reply  invariably  was  that  the  question  was  one 
for  public  authority,  that  the  Government  was 
armed  and  would  take  action,  and  if  further 
powers  should  prove  necessary  they  would  be 
granted.  Then  the  topic  was  changed. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Argentine  Govern- 
ment, like  that  of  Great  Britain,  is  resolved  to 
finish,  once  for  all,  with  crimes  which  arouse 
only  horror  in  all  the  civilised  world.  In  the 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    89 

course  of  a  hasty  visit  I  had  occasion  to  pay 
to  the  Police  Department,  in  the  company  of  the 
City  Superintendent,  Senor  Guiraldes  (at  the 
very  moment  of  the  arrest  of  the  man  who  was 
believed  to  have  thrown  the  bomb  in  the  Colon 
Theatre),  I  could  see  that  not  only  is  the  force 
a  very  powerful  one,  but  that  it  has  at  its  head 
men  of  energy  and  decision  who  are  determined 
to  repress  deeds  of  violence,  of  which  all  or 
nearly  all  are  committed  by  persons  not  of 
Argentine  nationality.1 

While  on  the  subject,  one  may  note  that  the 
Argentine  police  have  adopted  and  perfected 
the  system  of  identification  of  criminals  by  the 
marks  of  the  thumb.  First  the  imprint  of  all 
ten  fingers  is  taken,  so  as  to  make  mistake  im- 
possible and  arrive  at  absolute  certainty;  then, 
acting  on  the  principle  that  it  may  be  as  useful 
to  identify  an  honest  man  as  a  bandit,  iden- 
tification certificates  are  issued  to  the  public, 
for  a  small  fee,  containing  an  enlargement  of 
the  thumb  imprint. 

1  The  Fire  Brigade,  admirably  organised  as  I  had  an 
opportunity  of  observing,  is  armed  like  the  Paris  Corps, 
and  can  thus  be  employed  to  reinforce  the  city  police  if 
necessary. 


90  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

A  crowd  of  people  waiting  at  the  door  of  the 
office  that  makes  and  furnishes  these  documents 
showed  that  the  public  fully  appreciated  their 
usefulness.  Young  men  and  old  were  submit- 
ting in  silence  to  have  their  ten  fingers  smeared 
with  a  sort  of  wax  not  easily  removed  by  soap 
and  water.  Each  in  turn  departed  well  pleased 
that  the  stigma  of  "  Unknown  "  would  never  be 
attached  to  his  grave.  It  appears  that  it  has 
become  the  fashion  to  register  one's  thumb  at 
the  police-station  before  starting  on  any  jour- 
ney. Seiior  Guiraldes  told  us  that  his  own  son, 
now  in  Europe,  had  taken  this  precaution  be- 
fore exposing  his  person  to  the  risks  of  the 
elements  and  the  unceremonious  manners  of 
Parisian  apaches. 

In  the  days  of  the  stage-coach  Parisians  used 
to  be  laughed  at  for  making  their  wills  and 
taking  out  passports  before  starting  on  a  jour- 
ney to  fitampes.  Now  behold !  By  other  routes 
we  have  returned  to  the  good  old  days.  And 
funny  as  it  may  appear  to  those  of  us  who  like 
to  believe  that  civilisation  in  South  America  is 
more  or  less  rudimentary,  it  is  precisely  this 
country  which  thus,  in  scientific  fashion,  guards 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    91 

against  the  barbarous  ways  of  the  capitals  and 
even  the  country  districts  of  Europe. 

There  was  recently  a  story  of  an  Argentine 
who  was  drowned  on  our  coast  and  whose  body 
was  subsequently  washed  up  on  shore,  with  the 
head  frightfully  mutilated.  As,  however,  the 
telltale  thumb  had  been  preserved  he  was 
quickly  identified.  If  this  story  had  been  told 
me  in  time  I  should  certainly  have  allowed  as 
much  of  my  person  as  wras  necessary  to  be 
dipped  in  wax  instead  of  venturing  to  start  on 
my  homeward  journey  without  the  simple  proofs 
of  identity  which  would  suffice  to  place  beyond 
doubt  the  status  of  any  Jonah  in  the  depths  of 
a  whale.  As  it  is,  in  spite  of  my  imprudence, 
I  reached  home  with  my  head  still  on  my 
shoulders.  Pure  luck!  Never  again  will  I 
trust  myself  at  sea  without  this  elementary  pre- 
caution, which  would  so  radically  have  changed 
the  fortunes  of  Ulysses  in  rocky  Ithaca. 

After  this  digression,  which  is  only  excused 
by  the  importance  of  the  subject,  I  want  to 
finish  what  I  began  to  say  about  the  ^aoid  Arge"n- 
tinism  of  our  friends.  I  had  a  great  surprise 
one  day  when  speaking  respectfully  of  the  fine 


92  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

qualities  of  the  Spaniards.  Some  highly  cul- 
tured men  present  interrupted  me,  and  criticised 
severely  the  race  from  which  they  had  sprung 
in  terms  one  might  have  expected  from  an 
Anglo-Saxon,  but  not  from  a  Latin.  Therefore 
I  must  ask  my  readers  not  to  imagine  that  the 
Argentines  are  merely  Spaniards  transplanted 
to  American  soil.  No!  The  real  Argentine, 
though  he  would  never  confess  it,  seems  to  me 
convinced  that  there  is  a  magic  elixir  of  youth 
that  springs  from  his  soil  and  makes  of  him 
a  new  man,  descendant  of  none  but  ancestor  of 
endless  generations  to  come. 

That  there  is  indeed  a  regenerating  influence 
in  this  youthful  land  is  proved  by  the  power 
it  wields  over  newcomers  of  whatever  origin. 
The  Italian  in  particular  is  Argentinised  before 
he  is  argente.  In  the  provinces,  as  in  Buenos 
Ayres,  I  had  a  hundred  thousand  examples  of 
this  before  my  eyes.  You  ask  a  child,  the  son 
of  an  immigrant,  whether  he  speaks  Italian  or 
Spanish.  He  answers  haughtily,  "  At  home  we 
all  talk  Argentine."  Another,  unable  to  deny 
that  he  was  born  in  Genoa,  although  he  claimed 
Argentine  nationality,  murmured  by  way  of  ex- 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    93 

cuse,  "  I  was  so  little."  I  may  add  that  in  the 
primary  schools  where  these  replies  were  made 
to  me  the  teaching  was  the  epitome  of  Argen- 
tine patriotic  spirit,  as  might  be  guessed  from 
the  pictures  and  inscriptions  on  the  walls.1  But 
Alsace-Lorraine  and  Poland  are  witness  to  the 
fact  that  unless  the  heart  be  wholly  won  author- 
ity may  labour  in  vain. 

As  I  want  to  be  wholly  sincere  here,  I  must 
admit  that  the  French  take  this  Argentine 
contagion  with  remarkable  facility.  I  should 
grievously  wrong  our  own  excellent  colony,  how- 
ever, if  I  did  less  than  justice  to  its  ardent 
patriotism.  It  is  only  when  tried  that  love 
grows  and  grows  purer.  In  absence  the  father- 
land seems  the  dearer  in  proportion  as  it  is 
connected  with  the  recollection  of  sufferings  that 
left  us  stripped  of  all  but  honour. 

The  public  work  of  the  French  colony  speaks 
loudly  for  it.  Its  most  important  achievement 
is  the  French  Hospital,  founded  long  ago,  but, 

*It  appears  that  on  the  day  of  the  National  Fete  the 
pupils  of  the  primary  schools  have  to  take  an  oath  of 
fidelity  to  the  Flag,  which  is  called  the  juro  de  la  Bandera, 
and  is  accompanied  by  speeches  and  patriotic  songs  that 
cannot  help  making  an  impression  on  the  children. 


94  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

thanks  to  its  Governor,  M.  Basset,  and  its  chief 
physician,  Dr.  G.  Laure,  it  is  invaluable.  As 
I  was  leaving  the  building  after  a  visit  I  shall 
not  soon  forget,  the  Chairman  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  showed  me  a  bust  of  Pasteur  stand- 
ing among  the  trees,  and  asked  what  I  thought 
of  a  suggestion  to  place  near  it  a  figure  of 
Lorraine.  Although  the  symbolism  in  the  two 
statues  would  be  entirely  different,  I  warmly 
concurred  in  the  plan.  There  is,  after  all,  a 
delicate  connection  between  these  two  manifesta- 
tions of  the  soul  of  France — the  desire  for  know- 
ledge and  the  courage  to  hold. 

These  men,  who  have  presented  to  the  city 
of  Buenos  Ayres  a  monument  worthy  of  France 
in  commemoration  of  the  friendship  of  the  sister 
republics,  and  who,  on  the  occasion  of  the  floods 
in  Paris  of  last  year,  sent  a  cheque  for  400,000 
francs  to  assuage  the  worst  of  the  distress,  never 
miss  an  opportunity  of  showing  their  loyalty  to 
the  mother-country.  Yet  how  many  sons  of 
France  one  meets  at  every  step  who  have  gone 
over  to  the  Argentine,  head  and  heart,  beyond 
all  possibility  of  return ! 

One  large  manufacturer  of  the  port  of  Buenos 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    95 

Ayres  is  a  nephew  of  a  member  of  our  National 
Assembly  of  1871.  I  noticed,  when  inspecting 
his  very  remarkable  establishment,  that  he 
speaks  French  less  fluently  than  Spanish,  while 
his  two  brothers,  who  pay  frequent  visits  to 
Paris,  have  become  thorough  Argentines. 

Again,  I  might  take  the  case  of  one  of  our 
most  eminent  compatriots  who  left  France  in 
his  twentieth  year,  but  who  has  remained  French 
to  the  very  marrow  of  his  bones.  His  son  is 
an  official  of  high  position  in  the  Argentine. 
Doubtless  his  marriage  with  a  woman  of  the 
country  laid  the  foundation  for  this  South 
American  family.  The  atmosphere  of  the  home 
is  naturally  altered,  and  his  material  interests, 
indissolubly  riveted  to  the  soil  that  feeds  him 
and  his  family,  attune  the  settler  insensibly  to 
new  ways,  and  gradually  transform  his  whole 
habit  of  mind  to  the  new  pattern. 

Can  anybody  explain  why  this  is  not  the  case 
with  the  French  who  try  their  fortune  in  North 
America,  and  why  in  Canada  the  two  races  live 
side  by  side  in  all  harmony  but  never  mix?  It 
must  *be  that  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water/'  as 
says  the  English  proverb,  and  that  the  Latin 


96  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

element  blends  more  readily  with  a  Latin 
agglomeration  than  with  an  Anglo-Saxon  com- 
munity. Here  I  have  seen,  over  and  over  again, 
that  after  two  or  three  generations  nothing 
remains  of  the  original  stock  but  the  name. 

I  know  of  but  one  instance  where  the  Latin 
organism  has  been  completely  assimilated  by  a 
northern  race,  and  that  is  the  French  emigra- 
tion to  Germany  in  consequence  of  the  revoca- 
tion of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  But  in  that  case 
a  community  of  religious  fervour,  strengthened 
by  an  odious  persecution,  was  the  active  agent 
in  the  blending  of  the  Latin  mind  and  character 
with  that  of  Germany.  We  all  remember  that 
the  first  German  Governor  of  Alsace-Lorraine 
was  the  descendant  of  a  French  emigrant. 
Some  of  us  may  recall  the  furious  address  of  the 
learned  Dubois-Eeymond  to  the  youth  of  Prussia 
in  1870,  urging  them  over  the  frontier  of  the 
land  from  which  their  ancestors  were  driven  by 
the  sabres  of  the  dragoons  of  Louis  XIV. 

To  return  once  more  to  our  Franco-Argen- 
tinos,  I  ought  to  say  that  the  severe  application 
of  French  military  law  but  too  often  embitters 
them  against  the  mother-country.  In  its  haste 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    97 

to  increase  its  population,  the  Argentine  awards 
nationalisation  to  the  children  of  foreigners  born 
on  Argentine  soil,  and  nationalisation  carries  in 
its  train  military  service.  It  is  the  same  system 
adopted  by  ourselves  in  Algiers  toward  Spanish 
colonists.  The  consequence  is  that  the  son  of 
French  parents  duly  registered  at  the  French 
Consulate,  in  order  to  preserve  for  him  his 
father's  nationality,  finds  himself  later  called 
simultaneously  to  serve  under  two  flags  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  ocean. 

What  is  he  to  do?  In  the  Argentine,  where 
military  service  is  very  short,  are  all  his  future 
prospects,  while  in  France  no  place  has  been 
kept  open  for  him.  If  France  were  in  danger 
and  called  to  him  for  help  he  would  not  hesi- 
tate, but,  failing  that,  his  actual  surroundings 
make  it  hard  for  him  to  decide.  The  majority 
respond  to  the  call  to  the  Argentine  flag,  and 
by  so  doing  fall  into  the  class  of  insoumis  on 
French  soil,  except  in  cases  where  the  father, 
with  a  forethought  that  cannot  be  approved,  has 
omitted  to  register  the  birth  at  the  Consulate. 

If  I  remember  rightly,  ten  only  out  of  forty 
youths  called  up  leave  Buenos  Ayres  annually 


98  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

to  answer  to  their  names  at  the  French  roll-call. 
One  wonders  whether  the  result  be  sufficient  to 
justify  steps  that  might  easily  trouble  our  rela- 
tions with  the  French  colony  in  this  country. 
For  the  young  insoumis  can  never  set  foot  on 
French  soil  without  finding  the  gendarmerie 
after  him.  Yet  his  business  will  call  him  inevi- 
tably to  Europe.  Where  will  he  take  his  orders 
when  France  has  shut  her  doors  to  him?  Eng- 
land, Belgium,  Switzerland,  and  Germany  are 
open  to  him.  I  heard  recently  a  story  about  a 
Frenchman  of  Buenos  Ayres  who  ventured  to 
Lille,  and  had  only  just  time,  at  a  warning  from 
a  friend,  to  escape  over  the  border. 

I  need  not  dwell  on  the  matter,  but  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  detrimental  the  present  state  of  the 
law  is  to  French  families  living  in  the  Argentine, 
Brazil,  and  other  American  countries,  as  well 
as  to  France  herself.  We  manage  in  this  way 
to  drive  from  the  national  fold  a  number  of 
young  men  who  would  in  time  of  danger  respond 
heartily  to  a  call  from  the  motherland. 

Wherever  I  went  I  heard  the  same  cry.  The 
Consuls  and  the  French  Minister  could  only 
reply,  "  It  is  the  law."  But  the  Frenchman  who 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA    99 

follows  the  Flag  in  some  foreign  land  demands 
an  alteration  in  a  law  which  ought  not  to  be 
applied  with  the  same  rigour  to  youths  living 
in  Basle,  Brussels,  Geneva,  and  to  those  who 
have  found  a  field  for  their  activities  across  the 
sea. 

To  me  it  seems  only  justice  to  establish  a 
distinction  in  our  legislation  between  these  two 
categories  of  French  subjects.  For  example,  I 
heard  of  the  case  of  an  eminent  politician — M. 
Pellegrini,  the  son  of  an  inhabitant  of  Nice,  and 
therefore  French — who,  in  his  youth,  got  into 
difficulties  in  the  way  described  with  the  French 
recruiting  service,  and  who  later,  having  risen 
to  the  position  of  President  of  the  Argentine 
Republic,  received  the  Grand  Cordon  of  the 
Legion  of  Honour.  The  red  ribbon  or  the  Coun- 
cil of  War — which  seems  the  more  appropriate 
reward  to  citizens  of  this  kind?  Of  course,  we 
must  all  regret  that  valuable  citizens  should 
thus  be  taken  from  France  at  the  moment  when 
she  needs  every  one  of  her  children.  At  the 
same  time  we  must  consider  that  a  Frenchman 
who  has  become  Argentine  is  by  no  means  lost 
to  France,  as  might  be  the  case  in  the  United 


100          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

V.       K 
States,  for  instance,  where  the  Latin  is  rapidly 

submerged  by  the  irresistible  flood  of  Anglo- 
Saxonism. 

In  the  Argentine,  on  the  contrary,  the  North- 
ern races  prove  merely  a  useful  element  of 
methodical  intelligence  and  tenacity,  which  is  in 
time  engulfed  by  the  great  Latin  wave.  There 
are  important  German  colonies  in  Brazil,  and 
even  in  the  Argentine.  Both  English  and  North 
Americans  have  prosperous  manufactories  there. 
Yet  in  a  race  that  has  preserved  integrally  its 
Latinity,  all  this  is  of  but  secondary  interest, 
and  the  tendency  remains  to  travel  steadily  in 
the  track  of  peoples  of  Latin  stock,  among  whom 
it  may  without  presumption  be  said  that  the 
French  exert  the  most  powerful  influence. 

For  this  reason  any  Frenchman  of  average 
intellectual  and  moral  value  who  becomes  in- 
corporated in  the  Argentine  nation  must  almost 
infallibly  at  the  same  time — for  I  doubt  if  any 
Frenchman  is  ever  really  un-Frenched — mate- 
rially aid  in  permanently  strengthening  French 
prestige. 

What  are  we  to  think  of  men  like  M.  Paul 
Groussac,  who  holds  an  eminent  place  in  Buenos 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA  101 

Ayres,  but  who  would  equally  in  his  own  land 
have  reached  the  very  front  rank?  M.  Groussac, 
having  gone  through  our  naval  training  school, 
set  out  to  see  the  world.  One  day,  his  pockets 
empty,  he  arrived  at  Buenos  Ayres,  where 
courageously  he  hired  himself  as  gaucho — that 
is,  keeper  of  the  immense  flocks  of  the  Pampas, 
whose  members  run  into  their  thousands — and 
he  undertook  to  drive  a  train  of  mules  to  Peru. 
He  accomplished  the  journey  successfully,  cover- 
ing the  same  route  four  times  in  all,  each 
journey  taking  four  months.  Later  we  find  him 
acting  as  schoolmaster.  In  Tucuman  he  car- 
ried on  the  work  of  the  French  outlaw,  Jacques, 
who,  having  escaped  to  the  Argentine  after  the 
coup  d'etat  of  December  2d,  devoted  himself  en- 
tirely to  public  education  on  lines  taken  up  later 
and  developed  by  President  Sarmiento.  We  had 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  in  the  place  of  honour  at 
the  Training  College  of  Tucuman  the  portraits 
of  the  two  French  founders,  Jacques  and  Paul 
Groussac.  From  time  to  time  the  latter  brother 
has  published  various  literary  works,  notably 
some  short  stories  in  which  Argentine  life  and 
character  are  brilliantly  set  forth,  and  the  name 


102          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  their  author  has  achieved  a  wide  celebrity. 
Then  M.  Hilleret,  the  great  French  sugar  manu- 
facturer of  Santa  Ana,  placed  a  large  capital 
at  the  disposal  of  Paul  Groussac  with  which  to 
start  a  daily  paper  destined  to  reveal,  in  the 
person  of  its  editor-in-chief,  a  writer  of  remark- 
able force. 

To-day  you  may  hear  that  Paul  Groussac  is 
the  leading  Spanish  writer  of  our  times,  which 
by  no  means  prevents  him  from  contributing 
some  brilliant  articles  to  our  own  Journal  des 
Debats,  amply  proving  his  mastery  of  his  mother- 
tongue,  not  to  mention  a  curious  study  by  him 
of  that  literary  enigma  the  Don  Quichotte  of 
Avellaneda. 

In  1810  a  Public  Library  was  founded  by 
decree  of  the~first  Revolutionary  Junto,  on  the 
initiative  of  Secretary  Moreno.  It  was  opened 
March  16,  1812,  its  nucleus  being  drawn  from 
the  convent  libraries.  In  1880,  after  the  pro- 
clamation of  Buenos  Ayres  as  capital  of  the 
Federation,  the  Public  Library  became  the  Na- 
tional Library,  and  in  1885  Paul  Groussac  was 
appointed  Governor.  In  an  interview  with 
President  Eoca,  who  cannot  be  accused  of  any 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA  103 

partiality  for  him,  Groussac  obtained  a  grant 
of  the  building  intended,  alas!  for  public  lot- 
teries, in  which  the  library  might  be  installed. 
He  set  to  work  immediately.  The  National 
Library  of  the  Argentine,  under  the  control  of 
M.  Groussac,  is  now  without  a  rival  in  South 
America,  and  can  bear  comparison  with  many 
similar  institutions  on  the  Old  Continent.1 

One  of  the  pet  hobbies  of  M.  Groussac  is  now 
to  open  a  French  lycee  in  Buenos  Ayres,  with 
the  support  of  both  Governments.  His  eldest 
son,  an  Argentine,  has  just  been  appointed  to 
the  post  of  Under-Secretary  of  State  in  the 
Office  of  Public  Instruction  by  M.  Saenz  Peiia. 

Strangely  enough  all  the  fine  qualities  of  this 
illustrious  compatriot  of  ours  have  been  lost 
sight  of  for  the  reason  that  through  some  defect 
— I  had  almost  said  vice — in  his  character  he 
has  won  the  reputation  of  being  the  surliest  of 
bears.  Having  myseU  also,  to  some  extent,  a 
reputation  for  being  less  than  amiable  I  won- 
dered whether  the  two  of  us  might  not  come  to 
blows  if  we  met.  Considering  in  some  sort  my 

1In  1893  the  Library  numbered  69,000  volumes;  in 
1903,  130,000;  and  in  1910,  190,000. 


104          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

bald  head  a  protection,  I  ventured  into  the  bear's 
den,  and  found  only  the  most  affable  and  genial 
of  men,  whose  claws  were  of  velvet  and  his  tusks 
of  sugar.  Thus  we  made  friends  at  once,  and  I 
found  that  the  much-dreaded  beast  had  nothing 
terrible  about  him,  unless  it  was  a  strong  accent 
of  the  Gers. 

Since  that  day  I  have  done  my  best  to  dispel 
so  injurious  a  prejudice  against  the  man.  I  can 
only  explain  its  prevalence  by  the  words  of 
Tacitus,  who  remarked  of  his  father-in-law, 
Agricola,  "  He  chose  rather  to  offend  than  to 
hate."  It  is  a  rare  enough  trait  among  men 
this,  which  leads  them,  like  Alceste,  to  declare 
their  real  opinion  rather  than  stoop  to  the  in- 
dignity of  falsehood.  It  may  very  easily  happen 
that  in  this  way  such  men  may  offend  the  talker 
who  asks  only  cheap  flattery,  though  actuated 
themselves  by  the  kindliest  feelings  towards 
their  fellow-men. 

If  we  consider  for  a  moment  the  sentiment 
aroused  in  us  by  the  general  practice  of  using 
words  to  conceal  our  thoughts,  we  must  recog- 
nise that  we  are  the  first  to  suffer  by  this  uni- 
versal weakness — not  to  say  cowardice — in  that 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA  105 

we  only  expect  from  others  what  we  ourselves 
give,  namely,  hypocritical  phrases,  leading  to 
crooked  actions,  and  causing  that  silent  but 
lasting  dislike  which  forms  the  principal  obses- 
sion in  the  life  of  many  among  us.  If  it  is  a 
less  offence  to  inspire  than  to  harbour  dislike, 
let  us  absolve  the  men  who  fail  to  win  universal 
regard,  but  who  are  nevertheless  wholly  in- 
capable of  harming  a  creature. 

Unless  I  am  misinformed,  we  shall  soon  have 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  Paul  Groussac  in  Paris. 
A  Chair  of  History  of  the  Argentine  Republic 
has  been  founded  at  the  Sorbonne,  and  there  is 
talk  of  offering  it  to  him.  Certainly  no  one 
could  better  perform  its  duties.  Yet  it  would 
surprise  me  if  he  could  in  this  way  break  off 
his  multitudinous  engagements  in  the  Argentine. 
They  say  he  will  in  person  open  the  course  of 
lectures.  I  can  promise  an  intellectual  treat  to 
his  hearers. 

I  did  not  hear  of  any  Germans  or  English- 
men who  had,  to  the  same  extent  as  the  Italians 
and  the  French,  undergone  transformation  into 
Argentinos.  The  German,  whose  fundamental 
roughness — to  call  it  by  no  stronger  name — is 


106          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

frequently  masked  by  good  humour,  works  his 
way  into  all  classes  of  society,  but  without  losing 
any  of  his  original  traits.  M.  Mihanowitch,  who 
is  at  the  head  of  a  colossal  business  of  river  and 
sea  transportation,  must,  notwithstanding  his 
Austrian  origin,  be  considered  as  an  Argentine, 
though  he  is  surely  of  Slav  blood. 

The  English  invariably  retain  their  indi- 
viduality. I  am  told  that  in  Patagonia,  where 
they  are  carrying  on  sheep  breeding  on  a  scale 
that  leaves  Australia  in  the  rear,  they  have  built 
up  cosy  dwellings,  where  every  night  they  change 
into  their  smoking-jackets  for  the  family  repast, 
and  never  miss  taking  a  holiday  of  two  or  three 
months  in  their  native  land.  They  never  become 
Argentines.  This,  however,  does  not  prevent 
their  being  at  the  head  of  the  business  world 
of  La  Plata,  where  they  exert  a  powerful  influ- 
ence on  the  industrial  and  commercial  life  of 
the  people. 

It  would  have  greatly  interested  me  to  study 
the  foreign  colonies  more  closely,  but  time  was 
lacking.  Of  the  Spanish,  the  only  man  I  was 
able  to  see  anything  of  was  M.  Coelho,  the  dis- 
tinguished Governor  of  the  Spanish  Bank  of  La 


FOREIGN  COLONISTS  IN  ARGENTINA  107 

Plata,  whose  untiring  energy  reaches  out  daily 
in  new  directions;  he  gave  me  many  proofs  of 
kindness,  for  which  I  am  sincerely  grateful. 

It  is  certain  that  the  recent  visit  of  Field- 
Marshal  von  der  Goltz  to  the  Argentine  must 
prove  useful  to  German  influence.  As  we  know, 
it  is  the  Germans  who  are  responsible  for  the 
present  organisation  of  the  Argentine  Army. 
Their  Government,  wiser  than  some  others,  did 
not  hesitate  to  send  to  La  Plata  some  of  their 
most  skilled  officers,  who  were  naturally  received 
by  Argentine  society  with  the  deference  that  was 
their  due. 

The  eminent  legal  scholar,  Professor  Enrico 
Ferri,  lately  re-elected  Deputy  of  the  group  that 
we  should  call  "  Independent  Socialists,"  is  and 
has  long  been  the  official  mouthpiece  of  the 
Italian  colony.  Gifted  with  a  perfect  urbanity, 
an  impartial  mind,  lofty  ideals,  and  generous 
eloquence,  he  quickly  attracted  the  notice  of  the 
public,  and  soon  vanquished  the  suspicions  of 
the  Extreme  Right,  who  feared  his  Socialist 
views,  and  the  opposition  of  the  Extreme  Left, 
who  bore  him  malice  for  having  broken  away 
from  them.  M.  Saenz  Pena's  Cabinet  has  been 


108          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

well  advised  in  calling  on  M.  Enrico  Ferri  to 
take  over  the  management  of  the  penitentiary 
system. 

I  have  mentioned  the  principal  features  of  the 
French  colony,  and  shall  hope  to  be  forgiven  if 
lack  of  space  has  prevented  me  from  doing  full 
justice  to  its  members.  I  have  spoken  of  M. 
Py,  the  distinguished  Governor  of  the  Banque 
Franchise  de  la  Plata,  who  is  admirably  as- 
sisted in  his  work  by  the  manager,  M.  Puisoye. 
It  would  be  unpardonable  to  omit  the  name  of 
Mme.  Moreno  (of  the  Comedie  Franchise),  who 
has  so  thoroughly  mastered  the  Spanish  tongue 
that  she  has  opened  and  carried  to  success  a 
conservatoire,  in  which  she  trains  pupils  for  the 
stage.  It  would  be  the  less  excusable  to  forget 
this  lady  in  that  she  is  frequently  to  be  met  at 
receptions,  where  her  elocution,  both  in  prose 
and  in  poetry,  delights  her  Parisian-Argentine 
public.  Whilst  waiting  for  the  Academies  to 
confer  on  women  the  right  to  be  learned,  let  us 
venture  to  proclaim  their  cleverness  even  when 
it  is  but  an  adjunct  to  feminine  charm. 


CHAPTER  V 

ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS,  AND  ASYLUMS 

|P  the  different  foreign  elements 
contributed  by  the  Latin  peoples 
fuse  so  readily  into  an  Argentine 
race,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that 
Spanish  metal  bulks  the  heaviest  in  the  ore. 
Language,  literature,  history,  give  a  bias  from 
which  none  can  escape.  The  ancient  branch 
transplanted  to  this  youthful  soil  sends  up  its 
shoots  towards  another  heaven,  but  the  original 
sap  circulates  unendingly  in  the  living  tree. 
The  Argentine  is  not,  and  firmly  refuses  to  be, 
a  Spanish  colony.  It  has  successfully  freed 
itself  from  the  historic  shackles — those  of  theo- 
cracy, first  of  all — which  have  so  disastrously 
tied  and  bound  the  noble  and  lofty  impulses  of 
a  people  eminently  fitted  to  perform  exalted 
tasks.  And  hence,  notwithstanding  a  large 
alluvion  from  Italy,  symbolised  by  the  monu- 

109 


110          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

ment  to  Garibaldi,  notwithstanding  the  growing 
influence  of  French  culture,  the  atavism  of 
blood  preserves  an  indelible  imprint  which  will 
characterise  the  Argentine  nation  down  to  its 
most  distant  posterity. 

The  visit  of  the  Infanta  Isabella  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  Centenary  Fetes  in  honour  of  the 
independence  was  a  happy  thought  on  the  part 
of  the  Spanish  Government.  The  Princess,  es- 
corted by  M.  Perez  Caballero,  the  present 
Spanish  Ambassador  in  Paris,  was  everywhere 
received  with  rapturous  enthusiasm.  It  was 
easy  to  see  that  the  struggles  of  the  past,  now 
relegated  to  the  annals  of  the  dead,  had  left  no 
bitterness  in  the  people's  heart.  There  was  uni- 
versal pleasure  at  the  graceful  action  of  the  now 
reconciled  parent  in  thus  stretching  a  hand  to 
the  son  who,  with  impetuous  ardour,  had  thrown 
off  the  yoke  of  dependence,  and  the  public  found 
a  subtle  pleasure  in  showing  that  the  chivalrous 
courtesy  which  is  part  of  the  tradition  of  the 
race  had  lost  none  of  its  flower  in  this  American 
land.  After  the  severe  measures  taken  to  re- 
press anarchical  violence,  a  rumour  spread  that 
the  life  of  the  President  of  the  Republic  was  in 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  111 

danger.  Perhaps  there  was  nothing  in  it.  Un- 
fortunately, it  was  one  of  those  things  that  can 
only  be  verified  by  experience.  At  all  events, 
the  Infanta  Isabella  chose  to  ignore  the  danger. 
With  the  utmost  simplicity,  but  also  with  the 
utmost  courage,  she  showed  herself  everywhere 
by  the  side  of  the  Chief  of  the  State,  and  to 
the  lasting  credit  of  the  Argentine  reputation, 
everywhere  she  was  greeted  with  hearty 
applause. 

Here,  then,  is  a  base,  immutably  Spanish 
through  all  the  changes  that  one  can  foresee, 
together  with  a  fusion  and  perfect  assimilation 
of  the  Latin  elements  in  the  immense  influx  of 
European  civilisation :  such  is  the  first  condition 
of  Argentine  evolution  to  be  seen  and  studied 
in  the  city  of  Buenos  Ayres.  To  make  the  pic- 
ture complete,  we  must  notice  an  important 
contribution  of  Indian  blood  that  is  very  marked 
everywhere.  I  shall  return  to  this  later.  As  for 
the  national  character,  since  I  am  only  jotting 
down  a  traveller's  impressions,  and  not  attempt- 
ing to  present  to  my  readers  a  didactic  study,  it 
is,  I  think,  better  to  allow  its  features  to  spring 
naturally  from  the  subject  under  consideration 


112          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

as  we  go  along,  rather  than  first  to  make  state- 
ments that  I  must  next  attempt  to  prove. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  extreme  kindness 
of  Senor  Guiraldes,  the  City  Lieutenant,  who  is 
for  the  Argentine  capital  what  M.  de  Selves  is 
for  Paris.  Like  our  own  Prefect,  he  is  appointed 
by  the  President  of  the  Republic,  and  I  may  say 
that  although  there  are  inevitably  from  time  to 
time  differences  with  the  Municipal  Council,  the 
system  has  given  good  results  as  applied  to  a 
place  in  which  there  are  so  many  conflicting 
elements.  Senor  and  Senora  Guiraldes,  like  all 
the  upper  class  of  Argentine  society,  possess  the 
most  perfect  European  culture,  and  they  do  the 
honours  of  their  city  with  a  charming  grace 
that  delights  the  foreign  visitor.  Now  that  I 
am  at  a  distance  from  them,  I  consider  that 
I  may  with  propriety  pay  sincere  homage  to 
their  courtesy.  Whenever  I  found  I  had  a  little 
time  to  spare  I  used  to  telephone  to  Sefior 
Guiraldes,  who  had  once  for  all  placed  himself 
at  my  disposal.  He  invariably  replied  by  hast- 
ening to  my  door,  and  together  we  consulted 
as  to  tours  of  inspection;  it  was  agreed  that  I 
should  choose  the  institutions  to  be  visited  so 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  113 

that  there  might  be  no  suspicion  of  collusion. 
In  this  way  I  was  enabled  to  visit  all  the  State 
or  municipal  establishments  that  interested  me. 
When  by  chance  we  found  some  evidence  of 
official  oversight,  Senor  Guiraldes's  satisfaction 
was  boundless. 

"  At  least,"  he  cried,  "  you  will  not  tell  me 
that  your  call  had  been  announced  beforehand." 

Then,  to  check  any  inordinate  vanity,  I  told 
him  the  tale  of  an  adventure  that  happened  once 
to  a  certain  Minister  of  the  Interior  who  visited 
the  prison  of  Saint  Lazare. 

A  ring  at  the  bell. 

"  I  want  to  see  the  Governor." 

"  He  has  gone  up  to  town." 

"  Then  I  will  see  the  chief  clerk." 

"  He  is  away  on  leave." 

"  The  chief  warder?  " 

"  He  is  laid  up." 

"  Can  I  speak  to  the  Sister  Superior?  " 

"  She  has  just  gone  out." 

"  Well,  are  any  of  the  prisoners  at  home?  " 

The  gaoler,  smiling  amiably :    "  I  believe  so." 

Argentine  officials,  like  their  French  brethren, 
are  both  fallible  and  zealous,  and  while  it  was 


114          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

impossible  that  in  so  many  visits  there  should 
be  no  ground  for  criticism,  yet  I  am  anxious  to 
declare  publicly  how  admirably  kept_were  the 
schools,  of  whatever  degree,  the  hospitals,  asy- 
lums, refuges,  and  prisons;  they  were  not  only 
adapted  to  all  the  requirements  of  therapeutics, 
hygiene,  and  the  canons  of  modern  European 
science,  but  they  showed  a  genuine  effort  to  do 
better  than  the  best.  I  should  have  been  glad 
to  have  there  some  of  those  who  make  a  prac- 
tice of  disdaining  these  countries  that  started 
very  long  after  us,  but  that  can  already  give 
us  some  salutary  lessons  through  institutions 
such  as  those  I  have  named,  which  are  here 
brought  to  a  pitch  of  perfection  that  is  in  many 
cases  unknown  with  us. 

My  readers  will  not  expect  me  to  take  them 
with  me  round  all  the  establishments  that  I 
visited  with  Senor  Guiraldes.  They  would  fill 
a  book,  and  I  should  need  to  dip  into  the  innu- 
merable volumes  of  reports  and  notices  which 
Argentine  benevolence  added  to  my  personal 
luggage.  This,  however,  does  not  come  within 
my  subject. 

None  will  be  surprised  that  the  schools  at- 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  115 

tracted  my  attention  first.  The  School  Question 
is  too  vast  to  be  handled  here  in  detail.  But 
I  saw  professional  schools  (fi  coles  industrielles 
de  la  Nation),  and  primary  schools  that  would 
be^mgdels. Ja.  any,Jand.  All  the  arrangements 
irreproachable,  and  the  children  scrupulously 
clean.  Demonstration  lessons  in  abundance. 
Lessons  on  the  land  and  its  mineral,  vegetable, 
and  animal  productions,  specimens  of  each  being 
passed  from  hand  to  hand,  accompanied  by  ex- 
planations summarised  in  synoptic  tables.  A 
lesson  on  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the 
lungs  was  illustrated  by  the  breathing  organs  of 
an  ox  and  a  sheep  (higher  primary  class  for 
young  girls),  which  appeared  to  awaken  great 
interest  among  the  scholars.  Specimens  in 
pasteboard  coloured  like  life,  showing  the  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  organism,  allow  these  rudi- 
mentary demonstrations  to  be  carried  fairly  far. 

The  primary  schools,  under  the  management  4 
of  the  National  Educational  Council,  are  free, 
and  include  the  school  material  obligatory  in 
theory  for  children  of  from  six  to  twelve  years 
of  age.  But  the  population  of  Buenos  Ayres 
grows  more  rapidly  than  its  schools.  Hence  the 


116          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

inconvenient  expedient  has  been  adopted  of  di- 
viding the  pupils  into  two  categories,  one  attend- 
ing school  of  a  morning  and  the  other  of  an 
afternoon,  with  the  result  that  one  half  the 
children  are  always  wandering  about  the  streets 
while  the  others  are  drinking  at  the  fountain 
of  knowledge.  This  is  a  system  that  has  nothing 
to  recommend  it.  It  is  difficult  to  understand 
why  the  Argentine  capital  postpones  making 
a  pecuniary  sacrifice  which  is  certainly  not  be- 
yond its  means,  and  which  is  imperatively  neces- 
sary. The  criticism  is  the  more  justifiable  in 
that  untold  sums  have  been  spent  on  certain 
buildings  which  are  veritable  palaces,  as,  for 
example,  the  President  Roca  School.  About  a 
hundred  private,  lay,  or  denominational  schools, 
kept  for  the  most  part  by  foreigners,  take  in 
the  children  who  are  crowded  out  of  the  public 
schools.  At  Buenos  Ayres,  as  in  other  parts  of 
the  country,  the  number  of  pupils  in  this  cate- 
gory is  far  too  large.  There  are  provinces  where 
the  deficit  of  schools  is  such  as  to  constitute  a 
real  scandal  in  a  civilised  nation.1 

1  The  census  of  1909  showed  that  public  instruction  had 
since  1895,  the  date  of  the  last  census,  made  great  pro- 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  117 

I  shall  never  forget  the  heart-broken  tones  of 
a  child  of  ten  whom  I  met  in  the  Pampas  of 
the  Buenos  Ayres  province  and  whom  I  ques- 
tioned as  to  his  occupations. 

"  I  want  to  go  to  school.  Papa  does  not  want 
me  to." 

The  father  was  a  Mexican.  The  eyes  of  the 
child  thus  condemned  by  paternal  stupidity  to 
mental  darkness  were  full  of  intelligence.  How 
much  trouble  we  take  to  make  the  best  of  our 
land !  How  apathetic  we  are  when  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  developing  the  greatest  force  in  the  world, 
that  which  sets  in  motion  all  the  rest — human 
intelligence!  Is  it  not  inconceivable  that  in 

gress.  In  these  ten  years  the  Argentine  has  opened 
2000  new  schools.  In  1895,  30  per  cent,  of  the  population 
were  in  the  schools;  in  1909,  59  per  cent. 

The  Lainez  Act  enjoined  on  the  National  Educational 
Council  the  duty  of  opening  elementary  schools,  giving  the 
minimum  of  instruction,  wherever  they  were  needed. 

In  the  census  of  1909  every  child  from  five  to  fourteen 
years  was  made  the  subject  of  a  separate  card  of  psycho- 
physical  details  on  the  initiative  of  Dr.  Horacio  G.  Pinero. 
This  card  contained  twenty-one  questions:  age,  nation- 
ality, parentage,  height,  weight,  thoracic  measurements, 
size  of  the  head,  weight  of  the  body,  anomalies,  deform- 
ities, stigmata,  anterior  diseases,  sight,  hearing,  objective 
perception,  attention,  memory,  language  and  pronuncia- 
tion, affectionateness,  excitability,  temper. 


118          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

France,  after  nearly  half  a  century  of  labour, 
we  still  find  every  year  a  large  number  of  wholly 
illiterate  men  among  the  conscripts  called  up  to 
serve  with  the  Flag?  This  state  of  affairs,  which 
is  sad  enough  at  home,  would  be  reckoned  a 
great  success  in  the  Campo,  where  distances  are 
such  that  the  children  have  to  go  to  the  primary 
schools  on  horseback,  as  I  have  elsewhere  men- 
tioned. But  when  a  school  is  within  reach,  the 
folly  of  parents  must  not  be  permitted  to  debar 
their  children  from  its  advantages. 

The  municipal  and  State  schools  are  entirely 
undenominational.  This  rule  obtains  through- 
out the  Argentine,  where  it  is  accepted  without 
a  murmur.  The  numerous  religious  Orders  have 
their  own  private  schools  in  virtue  of  the  recog- 
nised principle  of  liberty  of  teaching.  It  might 
surprise  a  European  to  see  that  the  Catholic 
clergy  of  the  Argentine  do  not  attempt  to  fight 
the  undenominational  character  of  the  public 
schools  which  elsewhere  has  aroused  such  violent 
hostility.  To  my  mind  this  cannot  be  explained 
by  a  want  of  religious  fervour  amongst  priests 
and  monks  in  the  Argentine.  But  circumstances 
which  it  would  take  too  long  to  explain  have 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  119 

taught  the  Argentine  clergy  to  make  an  outward 
practice  of  toleration.  If  questioned  on  the 
subject,  the  Argentine  will  reply:  "  Our  clergy 
hold  themselves  aloof  from  politics." 

And  this  seems  to  be  the  case.  The  religious 
world  appears  to  be  no  party  to  political  dif- 
ferences. The  social  influence  of  the  Koman 
hierarchy  is  none  the  less  powerful  on  what  re- 
mains of  the  old  colonial  aristocracy  and  (with 
few  exceptions)  on  the  women  of  the  class  known 
as  superior.  Practically,  the  official  relations 
of  Church  and  State  in  the  Argentine  approach 
very  close  to  separation. 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  the  secondary  schools 
and  colleges,  of  which  I  saw  but  little.  They 
are  placed  under  the  immediate  control  of  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction.  There  are  no 
resident-  students.  This,  in  the  opinion  of  all, 
is  the  weakest  spot  in  their  educational  scheme. 
Arnede'e  Jacques,  one  of  the  exiles  of  our  De- 
cember coup  d'etat,  introduced  our  classical  cur- 
riculum into  the  Argentine,  but  it  met  with  no 
success.  Since  that  time,  here,  as  at  home,  there 
has  been  strife  between  the  partisans  of  the 
classic  and  those  of  modern,  or  even  technical, 


120          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

education.  Great  battles  have  been  fought,  and 
the  only  result  is  that  the  cause  of  education 
has  suffered  from  both  parties.  The  opening  of 
a  French  lycee,  which  I  have  reason  to  believe 
will  shortly  take  place,  may  help  to  restore  the 
classics  to  the  position  which  in  my  opinion  they 
ought  to  hold  in  every  civilised  country. 
i/  In  certain  branches  higher  education  has  made 
great  strides.  Law  and  Medicine  in  particular 
have  a  staff  of  eminent  men  in  their  colleges. 
Any  man  who  has  made  his  mark  in  Europe  is 
sure  of  a  choice  audience  there,  drawn  from  both 
professors  and  students.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
being  present  at  the  first  of  Enrico  FerrPs  lec- 
tures at  the  Law  schools.  His  subject  was 
Social  Justice.  The  powerful  and  glowing  elo- 
quence of  the  orator  was  never  displayed  before 
a  public  better  prepared  to  profit  by  his  lofty 
teaching  on  humanitarian  equity. 

It  is  not  in  vain  that  so  many  young  Argen- 
tines have  made  their  way  to  the  universities 
of  France,  Italy,  and  Germany.  As  soon  as  I  set 
foot  in  the  hospitals  here  I  had  an  impres- 
sion that  I  was  in  the  full  s 


screm?e7and  that  the  Argentines  were  determined 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  121 

to  be  second  to  none  in  the  perfection  of  their 
organisation. 

I  noticed  an  excellent  bacteriological  institute 
managed  by  a  compatriot  of  ours,  M.  Ligneres, 
and  some  agricultural  schools  that  are  turning 
out  a  competent  body  of  men  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Pampas. 

The  hospitals  impressed  us  very  favourably. 
The  New  Hospital  for  Contagious  Diseases, 
situated  some  kilometres  from  the  centre  of  the 
town,  comprises  a  series  of  model  buildings,  all 
strictly  isolated,  of  which  each  is  devoted  to  a 
special  disease.  At  the  Rivadavia  Hospital,  for 
women  only,  the  Cobo  wards  (for  pulmonary 
tuberculosis  and  surgical  operations)  are  par- 
ticularly admirable.  Everywhere  the  latest  im- 
provements as  regards  the  appliances  for  the 
patients,  the  sterilising  halls,  and  operating 
theatres,  and  also  as  regards  surgical  appliances. 
Nothing  has  been  overlooked  that  can  increase 
the  efficaTrtrro^Tiess  ofthe hospital  schools:  amphi- 
theatres for  classes,  diagrams,^spe?&5ns,  etc. 
The  laboratories  are  so  luxurious  that  they 
would  make  our  own  hospital  students  envious. 
It  was  here  that  Dr.  Pozzi,  our  eminent  com- 


122          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

patriot,  performed  in  May,  1910,  ^a  series  of 
operations,  every  one  of  which  proved  success- 
ful ;  while  his  German  fellow-practitioner,  whose 
scientific  acquirements  are  unquestionable,  met 
with  very  different  results.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  Dr.  Doleris,  who  held  a  course  of  demon- 
stration lessons  in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  whose 
operations  were  also  crowned  with  entire  suc- 
cess. The  Eivadavia  Hospital  has  a  fine  annexe 
of  supplementary  work:  consultations  for  out- 
patients, electro-  and  radio-therapy,  dispensary, 
etc.  I  must  also  mention  the  sumptuous  recrea- 
tion-rooms for  the  use  of  convalescents,  and  the 
gardens,  exquisitely  kept. 

In  the  maternity  wards  (at  Alvear  as  at 
Rivadavia)  we  find  the  same  care  for  ultra- 
modern comfort,  combined  with  the  strictest 
cleanliness.  I  must  not  forget  a  very  curious 
obstetrical  museum  with  diagrams,  anatomical 
specimens,  and  a  series  of  admirable  prepara- 
tions exemplifying  the  different  stages  of  ges- 
tation. A  small  cradle  should  be  noticed  (a 
German  invention,  I  believe),  ingeniously  at- 
tached to  the  mother's  bed  and  taken  down  with 
a  single  movement  of  the  hand.  Very  happy 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  123 

instance  of  simplification.  Everywhere — in  the 
design  of  the  buildings,  in  the  fittings,  labora- 
tories, sterilising-  and  operating-rooms — the  in- 
fluence and  products  of  Germany,  were  patent. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  French  culture  of  doctors 
and -surgeons,  masters  and  pupils,  was  easily 
discernible,  and  all  were  greatly  indebted  to  the 
classics  of  our  Paris  and  Lyons  Faculties.  I 
could  not  see  the  evidences  of  this  in  the  hospital 
libraries  without  remembering  regretfully  the 
churlish  reception  that  is  given  in  some  of  our 
hospital  schools  to  modest  foreign  savants. 

At  the  same  time,  I  will  not  conceal  the  fact 
that  Protection  of  the  most  extreme  sort  flour- 
ishes among  the  Argentine  physicians,  who  are 
very  anxious  to  defend  themselves  against  Euro- 
pean competition.  I  was  told  that  there  are  no 
less  than  thirty-two.  f^fl™inRtinr>s  JmpftfiP'1  QT1  a 
doctor  from  the  Paris  Faculty  before  he  is  per- 
mitted to  write  out  the  simplest  prescription  for 
a  gaucho  of  the  Pampas.  We  may  be  allowed 
to  find  these  measures  highly  exaggerated. 

There  is  a  splendid  Asylum  for  Aged  Men 
kept  by  French  Sisters  of  Charity  in  a  condition 
of  the  daintiest  cleanliness,  and  managed  by 


124          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

ladies  of  the  city.  The  Argentines  claim  that 
their  women  are  very  zealous  in  all  charitable 
works.  Doubt  was  thrown  recently  in  the 
Chamber  on  this  statement.  I  am  not  competent 
to  judge. 

One  original  institution — the  Widows'  Asylum 
— is  a  sort  of  settlement  composed  of  small 
apartments  of  one  or  two  rooms,  on  a  single 
floor.  In  the  courtyard  opposite  the  gate  is  a 
small  shed,  in  which  is  placed  a  stove  for 
open-air  cooking,  possible  in  this  fortunate 
climate  all  the  year  round.  The  rents  are 
very  low  for  widows  having  more  than  four 
children. 

The  lunatic  .colony  of  Lujan,  to  which  its 
founder  and  manager,  Dr.  Cabred,  has  given  the 
significant  name  of  The  Open  Door,  deserves  a 
more  detailed  description.  It  consists  of  an 
estate  of  six  hundred  hectares  on  the  Pacific 
Line  seventy  kilometres  from  Buenos  Ayres,  and 
here  twelve  hundred  patients  are  accommodated 
in  twenty  villas — graceful  chalets,  surrounded 
by  gardens  and  containing  each  sixty  patients. 
These  villas  are  fitted  up  with  everything  neces- 
sary for  clinotherapy  and  balneotherapy,  with 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  125 

fine  recreation-rooms.  The  colony  is  enclosed 
by  a  line  of  wire ;  not  a  wall,  not  a  wooden  fence 
— everywhere  unrestricted  freedom  and  a  wide, 
open  horizon. 

We  have  erected  a  monument  in  Paris  to  the 
memory  of  Pinel,  in  which  he  is  represented  as 
breaking  the  chains  which  mediaeval  ignorance 
heaped  on  the  mad  inmates  of  Bicetre  as  late  as 
1793.  But  if  you  visit  our  asylum  of  Sainte- 
Anne,  you  are  tempted  to  ask  in  what  this 
"  modern  "  establishment  differs  from  an  ordi- 
nary prison.  I  hasten  to  add  that  in  the  other 
asylums  of  the  Department  of  the  Seine  we  are 
beginning  to  develop  the  open-air  treatment. 
Long  ago  the  system  of  placing  certain  patients 
out  in  the  country  amongst  peasant  families  was 
planned  and  adopted.  The  Open  Door  treats  all 
mental  patients,  of  whatever  degree  of  mad- 
ness, on  the  plan  known  out  here  as  "  work  per- 
formed Jnjiberty."  In  the  confusion  of  cerebral 
phenomena  the  widest  freedom  is  given  to  the 
reflex  action  of  unconscious  or  quasi-unconscious 
life.  If  a  patient  has  learnt  a  trade,  he  finds  at 
once  in  The  Open  Door  an  outlet  for  his  en- 
ergies, for  it  is  with  the  labour  of  the  lunatics 


126          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

that  the  carpentering,  masonry,  scaffolding,  etc., 
of  these  villas  was  executed.  Those  who  have 
no  trade  are  given  a  technical  education,  and 
often  acquire  great  skill.  The  difficulty  is  to 
persuade  the  newcomer  to  begin  to  work.  If 
he  refuses,  he  is  left  alone.  "  He  is  left  to  feel 
dull."  Then  he  is  invited  to  take  a  walk,  and 
once  on  the  spot  where  work  is  proceeding,  he 
is  offered  a  tool  that  he  may  do  as  the  others 
are  doing. 

"  I  have  met  with  only  one  refusal,"  said  Dr. 
Cabred.  "  One  patient  tried  calmly  to  prove 
to  me  that  life  was  not  worth  the  labour  neces- 
sary to  preserve  it.  I  must  confess  that  he 
nearly  convinced  me,  and  I  often  try  to  find  the 
flaw  in  his  reasoning,  though  never,  as  yet,  with 
success.  It  is  a  little  hard  when  the  apostle  of 
lunatic  labour  is  brought  to  ask  himself  if  the 
lunatic  who  refuses  to  work  is  not  acting  on  a 
better  reasoned  conviction  than  his  more  submis- 
sive companions.  At  any  rate,  he  is  the  only 
man  in  the  colony  who  does  nothing.  He  spends 
his  time  reading  the  paper  or  dreaming,  without 
saying  a  word.  When  I  go  to  see  him  he  mocks 
at  me,  declaring  that  it  is  I  who  am  the  fool, 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  127 

and,  indeed,  to  support  his  laziness  is  not,  per- 
haps, the  action  of  a  sane  man." 

There  is  not  ji_str_ait- waistcoat  or  a  single 
appliance  for  restraint  in  the  whole  colony. 
Excitement  or  attacks  of  violence  all  yield  to 
the  bath,  which  is  sometimes  prolonged  to 
twenty-four  or  thirty  hours  if  necessary. 

Separate  chalets  for  the  manager  and  his  staff, 
for  the  water  reservoir,  the  machinery,  laundry, 
dairy,  kitchens,  workshops,  theatre,  chapel.  Out- 
side, agricultural  labour  in  every  form,  from 
ploughing  to  cattle  rearing.  Only  the  superin- 
tendents who  direct  the  work  are  sane,  or  sup- 
posed to  be.  In  spite  of  this  assurance  it  is  not 
without  alarm  that  one  watches  madmen  hand- 
ling red-hot  irons  or  tools  as  dangerous  for 
others  as  themselves.  As  may  be  supposed,  they 
are  not  put  to  this  kind  of  work  until  they  have 
been  subjected  to  long  trials. 

Our  visit  to  The  Open  Door  lasted  a  whole 
day,  and  still  we  had  not  seen  everything.  From 
first  to  last  we  were  followed  by  a  mad  photo- 
grapher, who  took  his  pictures  at  his  own  con- 
venience and  reprimanded  us  severely  for  rising 
from  lunch  without  first  posing  for  him.  Four 


128          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

days  later  a  series  of  photographs,  representing 
the  various  incidents  of  our  day  at  The  Open 
Door,  was  sent  to  me,  bound  in  an  album — by 
a  madman,  of  course,  and  sent  by  another  mad- 
man to  a  person  mad  enough  to  believe  himself 
endowed  with  reason. 

Need  I  add  that  we  had  been  received  to  the 
strains  of  the  Marseillaise  and  the  National 
Argentine  Hymn,  performed  by_a_mad  band, 
which,  all  through  lunch,  played  the  music  of 
its  repertoire!  Ever  since,  I  have  wondered 
why  a  certificate  of  madness  is  not  demanded 
from  every  candidate  for  admission  to  the  Opera 
orchestra. 

As  for  journalism,  do  you  suppose  that  no 
room  was  found  for  it  in  The  Open  Door?  The 
excellent  Dr.  Cabred  is  not  a  man  to  make  such 
omissions.  We  were  duly  presented  with  a  copy 
of  the  Ecos  de  las  Mercedes,  a  monthly  paper, 
written  and  published  by  the  madmen  of  The 
Open  Door,  with  the  intention,  perhaps,  of  mak- 
ing us  believe  that  other  journals  are  the  work 
of  individuals  in  full  possession  of  their  common- 
sense — prose  and  poetry;  articles  in  Spanish, 
Italian,  and  French;  occasionally  a  slight  care- 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  129 

lessness  in  grammar  and  in  sequence  of  thought, 
but,  on  the  whole,  not  wandering  farther  from 
their  subject  than  others. 

Finally,  to  wind  up  the  day's  proceedings,  we 
were  treated  to  a  horserace  ridden  by  lunatics. 
Sane  beasts  mounted  by  mad  horsemen,  gallop- 
ing wildly,  by  mutual  consent,  in  a  useless  effort 
to  reach  a  perfectly  vain  end.  Is  not  this  the 
common  spectacle  offered  by  humanity? 

Meantime,  one  honest  madman  of  mystic  ten- 
dencies, decorated  with  about  a  hundred  medals, 
pursued  us  with  religious  works,  from  which  he 
read  us  extracts,  accompanied  by  his  blessing. 
I  wondered  whether  this  form  of  exercise  was 
included  in  Dr.  Cabred's  programme,  since  he 
claims  to  make  his  lunatics  perform  all  the  acts 
of  a  sane  community.  A  similar  scruple  oc- 
curred to  me  at  noon,  when  I  was  invited  to 
take  a  seat  at  a  well-spread  table. 

"Is  your  cooking  done  by  madmen?"  I  in- 
quired, not  without  anxiety. 

"  We  have  made  an  exception  in  your  favour," 
was  the  contrite  reply. 

And  now  another  question  arose  to  my 
lips. 


130          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

"  Since  you  have  clearly  proved  that  the  mad 
are  capable  of  performing  any  kind  of  task,  will 
you  tell  me  why  you  give  yourself  the  lie  by 
placing  at  the  head  of  The  Open  Door  a  man 
who  appears  to  me  in  possession  of  all  his 
faculties?  " 

"  Yes ;  that  is  a  weakness,"  replied  the  Doctor, 
laughing.  "  But,  after  all,  what  proof  have  you 
that  I  am  not  literally  fulfilling  all  my  own 
conditions?  Did  I  not  tell  you  that  one  of  my 
patients,  who  may  quite  possibly  be  the  most 
enlightened  of  us  all,  pronounced  me  a  raving 
lunatic  when  I  invited  him  to  work?  If  he  is 
right,  then  all  is  as  it  should  be  at  The  Open 
Door." 

I  did  not  wish  to  vex  the  kindly  doctor,  who 
is  the  architect  of  so  admirable  a  monument,  but 
there  was  still  a  doubt  in  my  mind:  Was  it 
possible  to  give  the  illusion  of  freedom  to  these 
madmen  by  merely  suppressing  the  walls?  They 
offer  no  resistance  when  called  to  co-operate  in 
all  kinds  of  open-air  labour,  and  find,  if  not  a 
cure,  at  least  relief  from  their  malady  in  this 
simple  treatment;  but  did  they  really  believe 
themselves  free?  I  did  not  ask  the  question, 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  131 

for  the  answer  was  given  by  an  old  French  gar- 
dener, one  of  the  inmates  of  The  Open  Door, 
who,  over-excited  by  our  presence  there,  suddenly 
began  to  rave. 

"  For  twenty-five  years,"  he  shrieked,  "  you 
have  kept  me  prisoner  here ! " 

Here,  then,  was  a  man  whose  life  was  spent 
out  of  doors  at  the  work  with  which  he  had  been 
familiar  all  his  life,  and,  although  no  sign  of 
restraint  was  visible,  he  was  conscious  of  im- 
prisonment. It  is  true  that  modern  determin- 
ism has  reduced  what  we  call  our  "  liberty  "  to 
the  rigorous  fatality  of  an  organism  which  leaves 
to  us  merely  the  illusion  of  free  will,1  while  im- 
posing on  us  the  impulse  of  some  superior  energy 
that  we  are  forced  to  obey.  Oh,  Madness!  Oh, 

1 "  If  the  idea  of  liberty  be  in  itself  a  force,  as  Fouillee 
maintains,  that  force  would  be  scarcely  less  if  some  wise 
man  should  one  day  demonstrate  that  it  rested  on  illu- 
sion alone.  This  illusion  is  too  tenacious  to  be  dispelled 
by  reasoning.  The  most  convinced  of  determinists  will 
still  continue  to  use  the  words  '  I  will  and  even  '  I 
ought '  in  his  daily  speech,  and  moreover  will  continue  to 
think  them  with  what  is  the  most  powerful  part  of  his 
mind — the  unconscious  and  non-reasoning  part.  It  is  just 
as  impossible  not  to  act  like  a  free  man  when  one  acts 
as  it  is  not  to  reason  like  the  determinist  when  one  is 
working  at  science  "  ("  La  Morale  et  la  Science,"  by  Henri 
Poincare,  La  Revue,  June  1,  1910). 


132          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Wisdom !  Oh,  vacillating  sisters !  is  it  indeed 
true  that  you  wander  hand  in  hand  through  the 
world? 

To  whatever  philosophic  solution  our  own 
madness  or  reason  may  lead  us,  let  us  hasten 
to  conclude  the  subject  by  stating  that  The  Open 
Door  is  a  model  establishment,  which,  thanks  to 
Dr.  jCabred,  enables  the  Argentine  to  give  the 
lead  to  older  peoples.  I  will  only  add  that  it 
is  the  rarest  thing  for  a  patient  to  escape  (if 
I  may  use  so  unsuitable  a  word),  since  the 
natural  conditions  of  the  surrounding  Pampas 
would  render  life  therein  impossible ;  and  the 
lunatics  on  the  way  to  recovery  who  are  given 
leave  of  absence  to  stay  a  few  days  with  their 
friends  before  being  finally  set  at  liberty  in- 
variably return  punctually  to  the  colony.  Who 
can  tell  if  some  lunatic,  restored  to  reason, 
might  not  secretly  refuse  to  believe  himself 
cured,  and  elect  to  pass  the  rest  of  his  days 
happily  at  work  under  the  glorious  sky  amongst 
these  peaceful  creatures,  where  the  troubles  and 
worries  of  the  world,  with  the  eternal  competi- 
tion and  conflict  which  are  the  scourge  of  our 
"sane"  existence,  are  unfelt  and  unknown? 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  133 

Such  a  case  might  lead  Dr.  Cabred  to  put  up 
a  similar  establishment  for  the  wise. 

From  the  lunatic  asylum  to  the  prison  is  not 
such  a  leap  as  some  of  us  may  think.  The  asy- 
lum lifts  out  of  the  relative  orderliness  that  we 
have  managed  to  establish  in  the  conditions  of 
civilised  life  all  those  who,  by  lack  of  mental 
balance,  might  introduce  unbearable  disorder. 
And  might  not  this  elemental  definition  be 
equally  applied  to  the  one  or  the  other  class 
of  unfortunates?  I  beg  my  reader  not  to  be 
alarmed  at  the  fearful  gravity  of  the  problem. 
If  it  be  true  that  no  philosopher  has  ever  been 
able  to  find  a  solid  foundation  for  the  right  that 
man  has  assumed  to  "  punish  "  his  fellows  for 
transgressing  his  laws,  at  least  all  will  readily 
admit  that,  notwithstanding  some  obvious  im- 
perfections, society  has  attained  to  manifest 
superiority  over  the  state  of  barbarism  in  which 
brute  force  alone  rules,  and  that  it  is  therefore 
inadmissible  that  those  who  would  transgress 
the  general  laws  on  which  society  has  been  based 
should  be  allowed  to  destroy  the  fabric  so 
laboriously  built  up. 

In  moving  out  of  its  path  those  who  would 


134          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

live  within  its  pale  in  defiance  of  its  laws,  society 
but  exercises  its  natural  right,1  The  real  ques- 
tion open  to  dispute  is  rather  the  treatment  to 
be  meted  out  to  these  rebels.  In  the  primitive 
code  of  the  talion  nothing  was  more  simple — an 
eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth — thou  hast 
killed;  I  kill  thee.  Thou  hast  inflicted  injuries; 
I  in  my  turn  shall  injure  thee,  and  I  expect  to 
deter  thee  from  future  crimes  by  fear  of  the 
pain  in  store  for  thee.  Such  "  justice  "  has  the 
double  advantage  of  being  speedy  and  readily 
comprehended  of  a  rudimentary  intelligence  as 
long  as  the  temptation  has  been  resisted.  But 
when  evil  instincts,  that  none  asks  of  Nature, 
have  caused  the  fall  of  delinquents,  the  morbid 
moral  sense,  more  or  less  distorted,  which  urged 
them  on  to  violent  deeds,  makes  them  conscious 
solely  of  the  violence  of  which  they  are  now 


1 "  If  some  day  morality  were  forced  to  accept  determin- 
ism, would  it  not  perish  in  the  effort  to  adapt  itself 
thereto?  So  profound  a  metaphysical  revolution  would 
doubtless  have  less  influence  on  our  manners  than  might 
be  thought.  Penal  repression  is  not  of  course  in  ques- 
tion; what  we  now  call  crime  and  punishment  would  be 
known  as  disease  and  prevention,  but  society  would  pre- 
serve intact  its  right  which  is  not  to  punish  but  simply 
to  defend  itself"  (Henri  Poincare,  loc  tit.). 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  135 

the  object,  and  drives  them  to  take  sinister  re- 
venge. Thus  they  are  prevented  from  exercising 
their  calmer  judgment,  from  which,  by  the  mere 
force  of  reaction,  there  might  spring  a  desire  and 
hope  for  a  new  life  within  the  pale  of  the  estab- 
lished order  of  things. 

And  seeing  it  had  been  left  for  1793 — the  epoch 
of  a  universal  outburst  of  fraternity,  manifested 
first  by  the  permanent  institution  of  the  guillo- 
tine— to  give  us  in  Pinel  a  man  of  enough  simple 
common-sense  to  break  the  chains  that  bound 
the  mad,  is  it  unreasonable  to  think  Miat  without 
freeing  criminals  (since  not  even  at  The  Open 
Door  are  the  lunatics  let  loose  upon  the  public) 
one  might  yet  seek  some  system  of  improvement 
and  reformation  to  be  applied  in  the  establish- 
ments in  which  we  keep  our  prisoners?  There  will 
always  be  some  incurables — that  is  certain;  but 
because  incurables  exist  in  every  hospital  and 
asylum,  ought  we  to  argue  therefrom  that  it  is 
useless  to  fight  against  an  evil  that  is  beyond 
human  powers? 

The  reader  may  suppose  that  I  should  not 
have  ventured  to  set  down  these  considerations 
of  social  philosophy  without  a  good  reason.  The 


136          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

principles  I  have  thus  summarised,  at  the  risk 
of  wearying  those  who  look  only  for  amusement, 
are  now  held  by  every  criminalist  worthy  the 
name.  But  since  this  new  conception  makes  its 
way  very  slowly  with  even  the  best-intentioned 
of  Governments,  which  are  the  more  strongly 
imbued  with  the  prejudices  of  the  masses  in 
proportion  as  they  are  the  more  impregnated 
with  the  democracy,  and  since  the  transforma- 
tion of  our  existing  prisons  would  be  very  costly, 
we  have  as  yet  not  got  farther  than  the  inclu- 
sion of  the  words  "  reform  "  and  "  amendment " 
on  programmes  that  are  very  far  from  being  put 
in  execution. 

Shall  I  give  an  example?  It  is  evident  that 
the  time-sentence  must  inevitably  restore  a 
prisoner  sooner  or  later  to  society.  Is  not, 
therefore,  the  public  interest  bound  up  in  his 
returning  with  a  good  chance  of  leading  a 
regular  life,  and  not  falling  back  into  the  dis- 
order that  was  the  cause  of  his  temporary  re- 
moval? And  is  not  the  very  first  condition  of 
this  fresh  start  the  possession  of  a  trade  with 
sufficient  skill  therein  toj?njsure  some  chance  of 
success?  If,  then,  we  can^$wre"te~ehnical  instruc- 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  137 

tion  in  our  prisons,  and  at  the  same  time  im- 
prove the  in teT^JSaXliul  moral  standard  of  the 
prisoner;  and  if,  on  his  discharge,  we  can  place 
the  man  whom  society  has  thus — temporarily 
only — removed  from  its  midst,  in  a  position  im- 
mediately to  earn  an  honest  living,  instead  of 
throwing  him  onTiis  own  resources,  to  be  again 
confronted  with  tho  jejune  temptations — would 
not  society  in  this  way  infinitely  multiply  the 
sum  total  of  the  probabilities  that  its  money 
and  trouble  would  have  the  desired  effect?  I 
think,  in  theory,  this  argument  will  be  readily 
admitted.  Unfortunately,  the  difficulty  is  that 
it  is  much  more  economical  to  draw  an  im- 
mediate profit  from  prison  labour  than  to  re- 
verse the  problem  and  spend  more  in  order  to 
place  an  instrument  of  reform  in  the  hands  of 
the  delinquent,  with  always,  of  course,  a  risk  of 
failure. 

In  the  United  States  great  progress  has  been 
made  in  this  direction,  and  if  I  appear  to  have 
gone  a  long  way  round  to  introduce  my  readers 
to  the  Qejyrid_(jinefl^JE^  Ayres, 

my  excuse  is  that  to  my  mind  the  Argentine 
Republic  has  far  surpassed  all  that  has  been 


138          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

attempted  hitherto  in  this  department  of  work. 
And  to  say  truth,  I  feared  that  in  bluntly  and 
without  comment  giving  a  description  of  what 
I  have  been  permitted  to  see,  I  might  jar  the 
spirit  of  routine  that  has  taken  hold  of  certain 
communities,  notwithstanding  their  revolution- 
ary changes  of  appellation. 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  the  material  side  of  the 
place,  which  very  much  resembles  our  own 
prisons.  The  prisoners  are  locked  into  their 
cells  at  night,  but  by  day  they  are  told  off  into 
the  different  workshops  which  are  intended  to 
perfect  them  in  their  own  trades  or  give  them 
a  new  one.  The  wages  question  Js  placed  on 
much  the  same  basis  as  with  us,  except  that, 
the  food  being  more  abundant,  the  men  are  able 
to  put  aside  the  greater  parJLQJL3£hat  they  earn. 
(The  diet  consists  principally  of  perchero — 
boiled  beef — the  staple  article  of  food  amongst 
the  masses.)  Conversation  is  allowed,  but  only 
in  a  low  voice,  and  as  long  as  work  is  not  hin- 
dered thereby.  Eations  are  distributed  in  the 
cells  by  the  prisoners  themselves,  who  take  their 
meals  with  the  door  open,  and  frequently-  add 
a  cigarette  to  the  menu.  There  are  books  in 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  139 

every  cell,  with  the  essentials  of  school  station- 
ery. There  are  fourteen  classes  and  fourteen 
masters.  All  the  inmates  attend  the  adult 
classes,  which  include  such  subjects — in  addi- 
tion to  the  theory  of  their  own  special  technical 
work — as  history,  hygiene,  morality,  and  in  each 
an  examination  is  held  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

Both  Governor  and  masters  testify  to  the  gen- 
eral application  of  the  pupils.  Tbkland  survey- 
ing^lassLgrows  with  special  rapidity,  in  view 
of  the  constant  demand  for  surveyors  in  the 
Pampas.  A  vast  lecture-hall,  which  makes  a 
theatre  when  required,  is  decorated  with  draw- 
ings, casts,  and  charts  by  the  hand  of  the  pupils. 
Lectures  are  given  both  by  masters  and  prison- 
ers when  the  latter  are  sufficiently  advanced,  or 
when  their  former  studies  have  qualified  them 
for  the  task.  On  one  occasion  M.  Ferrero,  who 
has,  I  believe,  published  an  account  of  his  visit 
to  the  Central  Prison  of  Buenos  Ayres,  was 
present  when  a  prisoner  gave  a  lecture  on 
prehistoric  America. 

"  And  the  old  offenders?  "  I  asked  as  I  went 
out. 

"  There  are  some,"  replied  the  Governor,  "  but 


140          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

not  many.  Our  system  of  re-education^  is  power- 
fully backed  up  by  the  permanent  offer  of  work 
from  all  parts  of  the  pampas.  Moreover,  the 
greater  number  of  our  crimes  are  what  are  called 
6  crimes  J)fpassion.f.  The  Italian  and  Spaniard 
are  equally  prompt  with  the  knife.  A  large 
number  of  these  men  have  killed  their  man  in 
a  fit  of  furious  excitement,  but  they  will  be 
thought  none  the  less  of  for  their  <  irritability ' 
when  they  return  home.  Our  point  of  view  is 
this :  Every  time  a  man  commits  an  offence  or 
a  crime,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  community 
to  begin,  immediately,  the  work  of  re-education. 
Probably  in  no  country  shall  we  ever  do  all  we 
might  for  the  individual  offender.  But  when 
one  member  of  the  social  corporation  falls  he 
must  be  made  over  again.  This  is  what  we  are 
trying  to  do,  and  I  admit  it  is  the  greatest  joy 
to  us  to  see  the  success  of  our  efforts.  I  have 
seen  most  of  the  prisons  of  Europe.  Did  you 
notice  amongst  our  inmates  that  expression  of 
the  tracked  beast  which  you  find  on  all  your 
prisoners?  No.  Our  inmates  have  one  idea 
only — to  begin  life  again  and  to  prepare,  this 
time,  for  success.  This  is  the  secret  of  that 


ARGENTINE  EDUCATION,  HOSPITALS  141 

tranquil,  confiding  air  of  good  children  at  their 
task  which  you  must  have  observed  on  so  many 
faces;  and  this,  perhaps,  takes  the  place  of 
repentance,  which  is  not  given  to  all." 

"  And  you  are  not  afraid  your  comfortable 
building  will  prove  an  attraction  to  people 
who  are  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do  with 
themselves?  " 

"  That  has  not  happened  so  far.  Such  a  fear 
— though  I  cannot  believe  you  are  speaking 
seriously — shows  you  do  not  take  into  account 
the  superior  attraction  for  every  human  creature 
of  liberty." 

With  that  I  left,  having  learnt  a  very  inter- 
esting lesson  from  the  Argentines,  whom  so 
many  Europeans  are  generously  ready  to  teach. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ARGENTINE   TYPES,   MANNERS,   AND   MORALS 

HAD  very  good  ground  for  stating 
that  a  salient  characteristic  of  the 
Argentinos  was  a  desire,  not  only 
to  learn  from  Europe  but  to  carry 
to  the  farthest  possible  pitch  of  perfection  every 
institution  begun,  whether  public  or  private,  and 
w-iaodel.  The  obvious  danger  in 


all  rapidly-developed  colonial  settlements  is  the 
acceptance  of  the  "  half-done,"  an  almost  ob- 
ligatory condition  in  the  early  stages  of  devel- 
opment, and  one  whose  facility  of  attainment 
is  apt  to  militate  against  the  persistency  of 
effort  after  that  precision  of  completion  which 
alone  can  give  good  results.  This  defect,  in  fact, 
constitutes  the  principal  reproach  brought  by 
the  systematic  Northerners  against  the  im- 
pulsive Latin  races,  whose  temperamental  traits 
lead  them  to  content  themselves  with  a  bril- 

142 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   143 

liant  start,  leaving  thereafter  to  imagination  the 
task  of  filling  in  the  blanks  left  in  the  reality 
by  this  unsatisfactory  method  of  operation. 

I  confess  that  in  setting  out  for  South  America 
I  was  prepared  to  find  I  should  need  the  great- 
est indulgence  if  I  would  escape  the  danger  of 
offending  by  discourteous  but  candid  criticism. 
This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  I  was  insensibly 
influenced  partly  by  a  few  sociologists  who  dis- 
cuss these  matters  carelessly,  and  partly  by  the 
folly  that  leads  us  to  overlook  the  claims  of 
consanguinity  and  urges  us  ever  along  those 
paths  that  England  and  Germany  have  opened. 
But  not  at  all.  If  the  prodigious  expansion  of 
the  great  North  American  republic  may  have 
inclined  me  to  fear  for  the  South  American 
republics  anything  approaching  to  comparison, 
it  is  my  belief  that  any  impartial  observer  will 
rejoice  to  recognise  the  robust  and  generous  de- 
velopment of  some  of  the  most  promising  forces 
of  the  future,  in  young  communities  that  are 
clearly  destined  to  attain  to  the  highest  grades 
of  human  superiority. 

In  1865  Buckle,  who  was  a  man  of  no  ordi- 
nary mental  calibre,  did  not  fear  to  write  in 


144          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

his  History  of  Civilisation  that  the  compelling 
action  of  land  and  climate  in  Brazil  was  such 
that  a  highly  civilised  community  must  shortly 
find  a  home  there.  The  event  has  amply  justi- 
fied the  bold  prophecy.  In  the  South  American 
republics,  as  in  the  United  States  and  else- 
where, there  are  different  degrees  of  fulfilment, 
of  course.  At  the  outset,  while  waiting  for  land 
to  acquire  value,  all  peoples  have  had  to  be 
satisfied  with  an  approximate  achievement.  But 
in  the  Argentine,  Uruguay,  and  Brazil,  to  speak 
only  of  countries  I  have  visited,  it  is  plain  that 
nothing  will  be  left  half  done,  and  the  capacity 
to  carry  all  work  methodically  .forward  to  its 
end,  in  no  matter  what  field  of  labour,  promises 
well  for  the  future  of  a  race. 

You  do  not  require  to  stay  long  at  Buenos 
Ayres  to  find  that  this  quality  exists  in  a  very 
high  degree  in  the  Argentine. 

I  have  mentioned  the  European  aspect  of 
Buenos  Ayres — the  least  colonial-looking,  prob- 
ably, of  any  place  in  South  America.  But  I 
noticed  at  the  same  time  that  the  Argentino 
refuses  to  be  simply  a  Spaniard  transplanted, 
although  society,  in  Buenos  Ayres,  traces  its 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   145 

descent,  with  more  or  less  authenticity,  from 
the  conquistador es,  and  did  originally  issue  from 
the  Iberian  Peninsula.  If  we  go  farther  and 
inquire  what  other  influence,  beside  that  of  soil 
and  climate,  has  been  exercised  over  the  Euro- 
pean stock  in  the  basin  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata, 
we  are  bound  to  be  struck  with  the  thought 
that  the  admixture  of  Indian  blood  must  count 
for  something.  The  negro  element,  never  nu- 
merically strong,  appears  to  have  been  com- 
pletely absorbed.  There  is^  very  little  trace  of 
African^  blood.  On  the  other  hand,  without1 
leaving  Buenos  Ayres,  you  cannot  fail  to  be 
struck  by  some  handsome  half-castes  to  be  seen 
in  the  police  force  and  fire  brigade,  for  example, 
and  the  regularity  of  their  delicate  features  is 
very  noticeable  to  even  the  observer  who  is  least 
prepared  for  it.  The  Indian  of  South  America, 
though  closely  akin  to  the  redskin  of  the 
North,  is  infinitely  his  superior.  He  had,  in- 
deed, created  a  form  of  civilisation,  to  which 
the  conquistadores  put  brutally  an  end.  There 
still  subsist  in  the  northern  provinces  of  the 
Argentine  some  fairly  large  native  settlements 
which  receive  but  scant  consideration  from  the 


146          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Government.  I  heard  too  much  on  the  subject 
to  doubt  the  truth  of  this.  Not  but  what  many 
savage  deeds  can  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the 
Indians,  as,  for  example,  the  abominable  trap 
they  laid  for  the  peaceful  Crevaux  Mission  in 
Bolivia  which  led  to  the  massacre  of  all  its 
members.  Still,  in  equity  we  must  remember 
that  those  who  have  recourse  to  the  final  argu- 
ment of  brute  force  are  helping  to  confirm  the 
savages  in  the  habit  of  using  it.  In  the  interest 
of  the  higher  sentimentality  we  must  all  deplore 
this.  But  our  implacable  civilisation  has  passed 
sentence  on  all  races  that  are  unable  to  adapt 
themselves  to  our  form  of  social  evolution,  and 
from  that  verdict  there  is  no  appeal. 

Not  that  the  native  of  the  South  is  incapable, 
like  his  brother  of  the  North,  of  performing  a 
daily  task.  I  saw  many  natives  amongst  the 
hands  employed  by  M.  Hilleret  in  his  factories 
in  Tucuman.  Neither  can  it  be  said  that  there 
is  any  lack  of  intelligence  in  the  Indian.  But 
the  fact  remains  that  he  finds  a  difficulty  in 
bending  the  faculties  which  have  grown  rigid  in 
the  circle  of  a  primitive  state  of  existence  to  the 
better  forms  of  our  own  daily  work,  and  this 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.    147 

renders  it  impossible  for  him  to  carve  out  a 
place  for  himself  in  the  sunlight  under  the  new- 
social  organism  imported  from  Europe  by  the 
white  men.  With  greater  power  of  resistance 
than  the  redskins  of  the  other  continent,  he, 
like  them,  is  doomed  to  disappear.  Yet  in  one 
respect  he  has  been  more  fortunate  than  his 
kinsmen  of  the  North,  and  will  never  entirely 
die  out,  for  he  has  already  inoculated  with  his 
blood  tlir  flesh  of  the  victors. 

I  am  not  going  to  pretend  to  settle  in  a  word     "" 
the  problem  of  the  fusion  of  races.     I  will  only 
observe  that  the  inrush  of  Indian  blood  in  the 
masses — and  also  to  a  very  considerable  extent 

in  the  upper  classes * — cannot  fail  to  leave  a 
permanent  trace  in  the  Argentine  type,  not- 
withstanding the  steady  current  of  immigration. 
And  if  I  were  asked  to  say  what  were  the  ele- 
mental qualities  contributed  to  the  coming  race 
by  the  native  strain,  I  should  be  inclined  to 
think  that  the  Indian's  simplicity,  dignity,  no- 
bility, sanddectei(m^^ 

I 1  might  instance  a  statesman  who  has  all  the  externals 
and  probably  also  the  prudent  wisdom  of  a  pure  cacique 
of  olden  times. 


148          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

in   the   happiest   way   the   turbulent   European 
blood  of  future  generations. 

After  all,  the  Argentine  who  declines  to  be 
Spanish  has,  perhaps,  very  good  reasons  for  his 
action.  Here,  he  has  succeeded,  better  than  in 
the  Iberian  Peninsula,  in  ridding  himself  of  the 
Moorish  strain,  which,  though  it  gave  him  his 
lofty  chivalry,  has  yet  enchained  him  to  the 
Oriental  conception  of  a  rigid  theocracy.  Why 
should  not  native  blood  have  taken  effect  already 
upon  the  European  mixture,  and,  with  the  aid 
of  those  unknown  forces  which  we  may  class 
under  the  collective  term  of  "  climate,"  have  pre- 
pared and  formed  a  new  people  to  be  'known 
henceforth  by  the  obviously  suitable  name  of 
"  Argentines  "?  All  I  can  say  is  that  there  are 
Argentine  characteristics  now  plainly  visible  in 
this  conglomeration  of  the  Latin  races.  The  ob- 
jection may  be  made  that  the  "  Yankee  "  shows 
equally  strongly  marked  characteristics,  which 
distinguish  him  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  stock, 
while  we  know  that  he  is  unaffected  by  other 
than  European  strains.  This  is  undeniable,  and 
in  his  case  soil,  climate,  and  the  unceasing  ad- 
mixture of  European  types  suffice  to  explain 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.    149 

modifications  which  are  apparently  converging 
towards  the  creation  of  a  new  type  or  sub-type. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  character  of 
the  Americanised  Englishman,  having  passed 
through  a  phase  of  Puritan  rigidity  in  the 
North  and  aristocratic  haughtiness  in  the  South, 
has,  for  some  inexplicable  reason,  burst  out  into 
a  temperament  of  highly  vitalised  energy  that 
may  be  summed  up  in  the  characteristic  formula 
of  a  universal  "  go-aheadedness."  The  South 
American,  on  the  contrary,  having  started  with 
every  kind  of  extravagance  in  both  public  and 
private  life  calculated  to  destroy  the  confidence 
of  Europe,  is  obviously  now  undergoing  a  set- 
tling-down process  with  a  marked  tendency  to 
adopt  those  principles  of  action  of  which  the 
North  is  so  proud,  while  at  the  same  time  re- 
taining his  affection  for  Latin  culture. 

It  is  easier  to  generalise  about  £he  Argentine 
character  than  to  penetrate  beneath  its  surface. 
It  is  naturally  in  "  society,"  where  refinement  is 
the  highest,  that  traits  whicli  best  lend  them- 
selves to  generalisation  are  to  be  seen  in  strong- 
est relief.  The  American  of  the  North  is,  above 
all,  highly  hospitable.  If  you  have  a  letter  of 


150          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

introduction,  his  house  is  open  to  you  at  once. 
He  establishes  YOU  under  his  roof  and  then  leaves 
you  to  your  own  devices,  while  keeping  himself 
free  to  continue  his  daily  occupation.  The 
Argentine  receives  you  as  kindly,  though  with 
more  reserve.  Although  I  know  but  little  of 
the  business  world,  I  saw  enough  of  it  to  gather 
that  money  enjoys  as  much  favour  there  as  in 
any  other  country;  but  the  pursuit  of  wealth  is 
there  tempered  by  an  indulgent  kindliness 
that  greatly  softens  all  personal  relations,  and 
the  asperities  of  the  struggle  for  life  are 
smoothed  by  a  universal  gentleness  charming 
to  encounter. 

In  their  family  relations  the  differences  be- 
tween the  social  ideals  of  the  North  and  South 
American  are  plainly  visible.  The  family  tie 
appears  to  be  stronger,  in  the  Argentine  than, 
perhaps,  any  other  land.  The  rich,  unlike  those 
of  other  countries,  take  pleasure  in  having  large 
families.  One  lady  boasted  in  my  presence  of 
having  thirty-four  descendants — children  and 
grandchildren — gathered  round  her  table.  Every- 
where family  anniversaries  are  carefully  ob- 
served, and  all  take  pleasure  in  celebrating 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.    151 

them.  The  greatest  affection  prevails  and  the 
greatest  devotion  to  the  parent  roof-tree.  Not 
that  the  Argentine  woman  would  appear  to  be 
a  particularly  admirable  mother  according  to 
our  standard;  for,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  said 
that  her  children  are  turned  out  into  the  world 
with  very  bad  manners.  How,  then,  are  we  to 
explain  the  contradictory  fact  that  such  child- 
ren become  the  most  courteous  of  men?  Per- 
haps a  certain  wildness  in  youth  should  be 
regarded  as  the  noisy,  but  salutary,  apprentice- 
ship to  liberty. 

All  that  can  be  seen  of  the  public  morals  is 
most  favourable.  The  women — generally  ex- 
tremely handsome  in  a  super-Spanish  way,  and 
often  fascinating * — enjoy  a  reputation,  that 
seems  well  justified,  of  being  extremely  virtue 
ous.^J  heard  too  much  good  about  them  to  think 
any  evil.  They  were,  from  what  I  could  see,  too 
carefully  removed  from  the  danger  of  conven- 
tional sins  for  me  to  be  able  to  add  the  personal 

1 1  shall  not  take  the  liberty  of  attempting  a  descrip- 
tion of  Argentine  beauty.  Let  me  only  mention  their 
large  black  eyes,  heavily  shaded,  the  delicately  golden 
skin,  beneath  which  there  pulses  a  generous  blood,  and  the 
sweet  and  ever  youthful  smile. 


152          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

testimony  that  I  have  no  doubt  they  merit. 
As  to  their  feelings,  or  passions,  if  I  may  venture 
to  use  the  word,  I  know  nothing  and  therefore 
can  say  nothing.  Are  they  capable  of  the  self- 
abandonment  of  love,  of  experiencing  all  its  joy 
and  all  its  pain — inseparable  as  these  but  too 
often  are?  They  did  not  tell  me,  so  I  shall  never 
know.  The  most  I  can  say  is  that  they  did  not 
give  me  the  impression  of  being  made  for  the 
violent  reactions  of  life  as  we  know  it  in  our 
daily  European  existence.  I  hope  no  one  will 
see  in  this  statement  a  shadow  of  criticism.  It 
is,  indeed,  a  compliment  if  you  will  admit  that 
in  an  Argentine  family  love's  dream  is  real- 
ised in  the  natural,  orderly  course  of  events. 
But  if  it  were  otherwise,  it  would  still  be  to  the 
highest  credit  of  the  women  that  in  their  role 
of  faithful  guardians  of  the  hearth  they  have 
been  able  to  silence  calumny  and  inspire  uni- 
versal respect  by  the  purity  and  dignity  of  their 
life. 

Above  all,  do  not  imagine  that  these  charm- 
ing women  are  devoid  of  conversational  talent. 
Some  ill-natured  critics  have  given  them  a  bad 
reputation  in  this  respect.  Their  principal 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.    153 

occupationjs-~ev4dently  paying  visits,  and  they 
gossip  as  be^tjhey_can  under  the  circumstances, 
considering  that  neither  their  friends  nor  their 
foes  give  any  ground  for  tittle-tattle.  This  de- 
ficit might  cause  conversation  to  languish. 

Dress  and  news  from  the  Rue  de  la  Paix  are 

- 

a  never-failing  topic.1  May  not  this  be  true  in 
other  lands?  It  has  also  been  said  that  the 
beauties  of  Buenos  Ayres  are  as  prone  to  specu- 
late in  land  as  their  menkind.  It  is  quite  pos- 
sible. None  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that  they 
gave  me  no  information  on  this  head  either. 
They  are  credited,  too,  with  being  very  sujDerji. 
stitious,_^and  are  supposed  to  attach  great 
importance  to  knowing  exactly  what  must  not 
be  done  on  any  given  day  of  the  week,  or  to 
what  saint  they  should  address  their  petitions. 
Here,  again,  I  can  give  no  authentic  information. 
Naturally,  had  I  been  present  at  any  of  their 
meetings,  the  first  condition  of  an  exclusively 

1 "  Six  dresses  are  sufficient  for  me  for  one  season  in 
Paris;  in  Buenos  Ayres  I  want  quite  a  dozen,"  says  an 
Argentine  belle  who  was  until  recently  a  member  of  the 
Parisian  diplomatic  world.  The  more  limited  circles  of 
Argentine  society  and  the  proportionately  keener  rivalry 
of  personal  luxury  may  explain  the  difference. 


154          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

feminine  company  would  have  been  unfulfilled. 
It  seems  to  me  more  reasonable  to  believe  that 
the  many  works  of  public_ch&rj.£y  in  which  the 
ladies  of  Buenos  Ayres  take  a  share  would 
account  for  much  time  and  also  for  much  talk. 

Further,  I  may  in  all  sincerity  remark  that 
if  female  education  be  not  one  of  the  points  in 
which  the  Argentine  Republic  has  left  us  be- 
hind, it  is  none  the  less  a  fact  that  I  was  happy 
enough  to  meet  many  charming  women  who  were 
perfectly  capable  of  sustaining  a  thoroughly 
Parisian  kind  of  conversation  supported  by  a 
fund  of  general  information.  And,  moreover, 
they  added  a  charm  of  geniality  and  real  sim- 
plicity that  are  not  too  common  on  the  banks 
of  the  Seine. 

I  have  not  spoken  of  shopping,  which  is  the 
main  occupation  of  the  fair  sex  in  North 
America,  for  the  reason  that  at  Buenos  Ayres 
I  saw  none.  I  mentioned  that  the  footwalks  of 
the  Jbjisiaess  quarter — including  Florida,  the 
handsomest  and  busiest  of  the  streets — were 
blocked  to  such  an  extent  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  walk  there  two ,  abreast.  You  do  not 
expect  to  hear  that  there  are  any  elegant  toi- 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   155 

lettes  in  the  crowd.  And,  in  fact,  in  the  central 
streets  no  women  go  afoot  for  pleasure.  Some 
go  about  their  business  with  hasty  step,  and  that 
is  all ;  the  others  receive  the  tradesmen  at  home, 
or  take  their  chance  of  calling  in  the  motor-car, 
which,  after  five  o'clock,  will  probably  not  be 
allowed  in  the  street  to  which  they  want  to 
go.  What  is  left,  then,  for  the  daily  stroll? 
Onl^Jthe  wide  ayenues^oJLthe  suburbs,  where 
there  is  no  particular  attraction,  and  Palermo 
—the  unique  and  inevitable  Palermo,  or  rather, 
a  part  of  Palermo,  with  the  Recoleta,  which 
makes  a  fine  beginning  for  a  public  promenade. 

In  these  circumstances  it  is  evident  that  the 
aspect  of  the  pavements  of  Buenos  Ayres  suf- 
fers by  the  absence  of  the  fair  sex.  It  might 
be  thought  that  at  Palermo,  where  the  walks 
lead  amongst  flowers,  lawns,  and  groves,  our 
Argentines  would  recover  the  use  of  their  limbs 
and  guard  against  their  dangerous  tendency  to 
an  over-abundance  of  flesh.  Not  at  all.  Social 
conventions  do  not  allow  of  this.  Our  classics, 
men  of  mature  mind,  were  fond  of  saying,  with 
the  Apollo  of  Delphi,  that  excess  in  all  things 
is  bad.  Buenos  Ayres  has  not  yet  reached  to 


156          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

this  degree  of  wisdom,  and  its  female  society, 
not  satisfied  to  follow  closely  after  virtue,  seeks 
to  add  to  their  fame  the  spice  of  a  reputation 
that  leaves  absolutely  nothing  to  be  said.  For 
this  reason  they  guard  against  even  a  chance 
encounter  that  might  appear  compromising. 
And  so  the  fair  sex  only  consent  to  walk  on 
the  Palermo  under  the  protection  of  a  rigorous 
rule  of  etiquette  which  enacts  that  to  stop  and 
talk  on  a  public  road  with  a  lady  whom  one 
may  meet  later  in  the  day  in  some  salon  is  a 
sign  of  unpardonable  ill-breeding.  Decidedly  we 
are  far  from  Europe. 

To  complete  the  exotic  air  of  the  place,  know 
that  all  husbands  are  jealous,  or,  at  least,  so 
they  say,  and  it  must  be  supposed  there  is  some 
foundation  for  the  statement.  As  far  as  I  was 
able  to  judge,  they  are  as  amiable  as  their 
wives,  and  appear  by  no  means  to  harbour  tragic 
intentions  towards  any  man  likely  to  arouse 
their  resentment.  No.  But  if  by  chance,  after 
dinner,  you  remain  chatting  quietly  with  one 
or  two  ladies,  and  in  the  inevitable  ebb  and 
flow  of  a  salon  you  find  yourself  for  a  moment 
left  alone  with  one,  be  sure  that  her  husband, 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   157 

more  genial  than  ever,  will  promptly  appear  on 
the  scene  to  claim  his  share  in  the  talk.  At 
home  this  would  appear  strange,  since  we  do 
not  impose  the  spectacle  of  our  private  in- 
timacies upon  the  public.  Yet  may  not  this 
very  air  of  detachment  upon  which  we  insist 
lead,  both  in  public  and  in  private,  to  some  of 
the  tragedies  of  life?  Is  it  wrong  for  a  married 
couple  to  love  each  other?  And  when  two 
hearts  are  united  in  this  way  how  can  a  feeling 
so  powerful  fail  at  times  to  betray  itself  by 
some  outward  manifestation?  Let  us  take  heed 
lest,  in  laughing  at  others,  we  denounce  our- 
selves. A  man  in  a  very  high  position,  who  is 
the  father  of  a  lad  of  twenty,  volunteered  to  me 
the  information  that  in  the  whole  course  of  his 
married  life  he  had  nothing  to  reproach  himself 
with,  and  that  if  by  some  misfortune  he  had 
transgressed  the  marriage  law,  he  should  have 
considered  himself  wholly  unworthy  of  the 
woman  who  had  given  her  whole  life  to  him. 
No  doubt  the  woman  in  question,  who  happened 
to  be  standing  near  us  as  we  talked,  fully 
merited  his  homage.  Yet  I  wondered,  as  I  lis- 
tened to  his  noble  and  simple  speech,  whether 


158          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

one  could  find  many  Frenchmen  to  make  in  all 
candour  such  a  confidence  to  a  perfect  stranger, 
or,  supposing  one  found  such  a  one,  could  he 
say  as  much  without  an  embarrassed  blush? 
Whatever  may  be  the  secret  opinion  of  my 
reader,  I  hope  he  will  agree  with  me  in  think- 
ing that  the  advantage  in  this  delicate  matter 
is  decidedly  on  the  side  of  the  Argentine,  whose 
sane  morality  is  the  best  of  auguries  for  the 
community  he  is  trying  to  found. 

I  should  like  to  say  something  about  the 
Argentine  girl.  The  difficulty  is  that  I  never 
saw  her.  Every  one  knows  that  in  North 
America  the  young  girl  is  the  principal  social 
institution.  She  has  got  herself  so  much  talked 
about  that  neither  Europe  nor  Asia  can  help 
knowing  her.  In  Argentine  society,  as  in 
France  and  in  Latin  countries  generally,  the 
young  girl  is  a  cipher.  She  may  be  seen,  no 
doubt,  in  the  home,  at  concerts,  where  she  figures 
in  large  numbers  for  the  satisfaction  of  our  eyes, 
at  Palermo,  at  the  Tigre,1  and  the  Ice  Palace — 
very  respectable — where  she  skates  under  her 

1  This  is  the  name  applied  to  the  group  of  islands  form- 
ing the  Delta  of  the  Parana. 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   159 

mother's  eyes,  and,  finally,  at  balls,  whose  joys 
and  special  rites  are  the  same  the  world  over. 
But  all  this  does  not  make  of  the  South  Ameri- 
can girl  an  element  of  conversation  and  social 
doings  as  in  the  United  States.  Sh.e  remains 
on  the^dgfiLfltjocietj  until  the  day  of  her  mar- 

TMftgp. At.  the  same  time7  tEePArgentine  girl 

must  not  be  supposed  to  resemble  very  closely 
her  sister  in  Latin  Europe.  Less  educated,  per- 
haps, but  more  vivacious  and  less  timidly  re- 
served, she  shows  greater  independence,  they  tell 
me,  at  Mar  del  Plata,  which  is  the  sole  common 
meeting-ground  for  wealthier  families,  since  the 
Pampas  offer  no  resource  outside  the  estancia.1 
At  the  Colon  Theatre  and  at  the  Opera  she  is 
seated  well  in  view  in  front  of  the  box,  making 
the  whole  ground  floor  an  immense  basket  of 
beribboned  flowers,  and  there,  under  the  eye 
of  her  parents,  the  young  men  who  are  friends  of 
her  family  are  permitted  to  pay  their  respects 
to  her.  Must  it  be  confessed?  It  is  said  that 
she  makes  use  of  borrowed  charms,  applied  with 
puff  and  pencil,  following  in  this  the  example  of 
her  who  should  rather  prevent  than  abet?  This 
1  An  estate  devoted  to  agriculture  and  cattle  rearing. 


- 


160          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

must,  however,  be  libel,  for  whenever  I  ventured 
a  query  on  the  point,  I  was  met  with  a  shrug 
of  the  shoulders  and  a  burst  of  laughter.  In 
such  a  case,  the  man  who  can  laugh  sees  always 
more  than  smoke. 

The  father  is  not  a  negligible  quantity,  what- 
ever may  be  said  of  him.  JLsaw-yepy  plainly 
that  it  is  entirely  untrue  that  he  takes  no  in- 
terest in  his  children's  upbringing.  I  may  have 
come  across  a  few  specimens  of  idle  youth  en- 
gaged in  flinging  their  piastres  into  the  gutter, 
but  as  regards  heads  of  families,  there  is  no 
comparison  between  the  number  who  here  are 
seeking  distractions,  illicit  or  otherwise,  for  a 
useless  existence  and  those  of  the  same  type 
to  be  seen  in  any  capital  of  Europe. 

But  while  I  have  here  said  nothing  that  is 
not  strictly  true,  I  am  not  trying  to  represent 
the  Argentine  husband  as  the  phoenix  of  the 
universe.  Money  is  so  plentiful  that  it  may 
well  be  responsible  for  some  sins,  and,  on  occa- 
sions, I  suspect  that  the  city  can  supply  oppor- 
tunities of  committing  them.  Even  so,  it  is  wise 
to  maintain  the  strictest  reserve  on  the  subject, 
for  Buenos  Ayres  smacks  strong  of  the  small 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   161 

country  town,  and  there  is  abundance  of  pointed 
arrows  for  culprits  who  allow  themselves  to  be 
caught.  Still,  as  long  as  society  has  not  de- 
creed the  total  suppression  of  the  bachelor  .  .  . 

None  can  deny  that  gambling  occupies  too 
large  a  place  in  the  life  of  a  certain  number 
of  the  newly  rich.  But  are  we  indeed  justified 
in  pretending  to  be  more  scandalised  at  what 
takes  place  amongst  our  neighbours  than  at 
home?  What  might  I  not  write  about  the  de- 
velopment of  our  casinos  ?  To  satisfy  this  vice 
in  the  masses  the  Argentines  have  established 
lotteries,  which  now  add  to  the  temptations, 
powerful  enough  already,  provided  by  race  meet- 
ings. The  evil  is  universal;  I  can  but  note  it. 

The  form  of  gambling  which  is  special  to 
Buenos  Ayres  is  unbridled  ^peculation  in  land. 
In  Europe  it  is  constantly  stated  that  all  the 
work  of  Buenos  Ayres,  as  of  the  Pampas,  is 
done  by  foreigners,  whilst  the  Argentine  him- 
self sits  waiting  for  the  value  of  his  land 
to  treble,  quadruple,  decuple  his  fortune  with- 
out effort  on  his  part.  This  might  easily  be 
true,  since  the  value  of  property  has  risen  with 
giddy  rapidity  of  late  years.  Sooner  or  later,  of 


162          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

course,  there  must  be  a  reaction ;  this  is  obvious. 
But  until  that  day  dawns  it  must  be  admitted 
that,  in  a  country  where  every  self-respecting 
mortal  owns  a  bit  of  land,  large  fortunes  have 
been  realised  before  the  fortunate  proprietor  has 
raised  as  much  as  a  finger.  Our  fellow-country- 
man M.  Basset  told  me  that  on  his  own  estate 
the  rise  in  value  of  his  waste  ground  allowed 
him  to  recoup  himself  for  all  he  lost  on  his 
arable  land.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is 
really  not  surprising  if  prices  form  a  general 
subject  of  conversation.  It  was,  in  fact,  on  a 
larger  scale,  but  with  less  excitement,  a  repe- 
tition of  the  Fair  of  Mississippi  stock,  in  the 
Rue  Quicampoix,  with  this  difference,  that 
there  is  here  some  foundation  for  it,  though  it 
is  by  no  means  inexhaustible. 

But  while  there  is  no  denying  that  land  specu- 
lation occupies  a  special  place  in  Argentine  life 
to-day,  it  is  also  incontestable  that  all  ranks  of 
society  are  here,  as  elsewhere,  devoting  their 
energy  to  some  great  agricultural,  commercial, 
or  cattle-rearing  enterprise.  The  estancia  needs 
a  head.  Herds  of  ten  thousand  cows  must  be 
well  looked  after  if  they  are  to  be  productive  in 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.    163 

their  three  departments — dairy,  meat,  or  breed- 
ing. The  magnificent  exhibits  that  we  see  at 
shows  are  not  raised  by  the  sole  grace  of  God, 
and  the  "  big  Argentines  "  with  whom  I  had  the 
privilege  of  chatting  not  only  spoke  of  their 
estancias  with  a  wealth  of  detail  that  showed  a 
close  interest,  ever  on  the  watch  for  improve- 
ments, but  also  frequently  I  was  given  to  un- 
derstand that  they  had  other  business,  which 
claimed  part  of  their  time.  And  many  of  them 
surprised  me  by  their  readiness  to  discuss  topics 
of  general  interest  that  happened  to  be  engross- 
ing the  attention  of  Europe  at  the  time. 

The  growing  4gterest  taken  in  all  kinds  of 
labour  on  the  soil  and  jthg^need  of  perfecting 
strains  of  cattle  both  for  breeding  and  for  meat 
have  led  the  larger  owjaewHfcrgroup  themselves 
into  a  club,  which  they  call  the  Jockey  Club. 
The  name  suffices  to  denote  the  aristocratic  pre- 
tensions of  an  institution  that  has,  nevertheless, 
rendered  important  services  to  the  cause,  as  well 
for  horned  cattle  as  for  horses.  The  sumptu- 
ous fittings  lack  that  rich  simplicity  in  which 
the  English  delight.  The  decorations  are  bor- 
rowed from  Europe,  but  the  working  of  the 


164          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

club  is  wholly  American.  The  greatest  comfort 
reigns  in  all  departments  of  the  palace,  whose 
luxury  is  not  allowed  to  dissemble  itself.  The 
cuisine  is  thoroughly  Parisian.  Fine  drawing- 
rooms,  in  which  the  light  is  pleasantly  diffused. 
A  large  rotunda  in  Empire  style  is  the  show- 
place  of  the  club,  but,  like  Napoleon  himself,  it 
lacks  moderation.  A  severe-looking  library, 
reading-rooms,  banqueting-rooms,  etc. 

To  explain  the  amount  of  money  either 
amassed  or  flung  away  here,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  all  the  receipts  taken  at  the  race- 
courses— less  a  small  tax  to  the  Government 
— come  back  to  the  Jockey  Club,  which  is  at 
liberty  to  dispose  of  them  at  will.  Hence  the 
large  fortune  of  the  establishment,  which  has 
just  purchased  a  piece  of  land  in  the  best  part 
of  Buenos  Ayres,  for  which  it  gave  seven 
millions;  and  here  it  is  proposed  to  erect  a 
palace  still  more  grandiose.  I  saw  in  the  papers 
that  the  Jockey  Club  intends  to  offer  to  the 
Government  the  building  they  now  occupy  in 
the  Rue  Florida,  and  it  is  believed  that  the 
Foreign  Office  will  be  moved  there.  You  see, 
the  Argentine  cattle  breeders  have  found  very 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   165 

comfortable    quarters     and     enjoy     themselves 
there. 

M.  Benito  Villanueva,  the  Chairman  of  the 
Jockey  Club,  is  a  senator,  extremely  prominent 
in  the  business  world,  who  joins  the  most  super- 
lative form  of  North  American  "  go-aheadism  " 
with  the  graceful  urbanity  of  European  bongar- 
gonnisme.  He  is  in  close  touch  with  all  classes 
in  the  capital,  and  if  he  cannot  be  said  to  have 
a  hand  in  everybody's  business,  it  is  certain  he 
could  if  he  would.  People  who  have  never  set 
eyes  on  him  speak  of  him  by  his  Christian  name, 
and  as  there  are  not  two  "  Benitos "  of  that 
calibre  this  is  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Very  unceremonious,  very  quick  of  perception, 
and  with  a  dash  of  the  modern  aristocrat  in  his 
bearing,  he  is  a  manager  of  men  who  would 
make  any  sacrifice  to  gain  his  end.  His  small 
black  eyes  are  as  bright  as  steel,  and  gave  me 
an  impression  that  it  would  not  be  agreeable  to 
have  him  for  an  enemy.  Like  any  man  who 
combines  politics  with  large  business  interests, 
he  has  his  adversaries,  but  he  appears  entirely 
oblivious  of  them.  His  estancia,  the  "  El- 
dorado," with  its  racing  stables  and  prize 


166          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

cattle,  the  Senate,  which  he  attends  with  great 
regularity,  and  the  innumerable  commercial  en- 
terprises in  which  he  is  engaged  (to  say  nothing 
of  the  admirable  Jockey  Club),  make  him  one 
of  the  busiest  men  in  Buenos  Ayres.  Never- 
theless, he  always  found  time  to  waste  in  my 
company,  and  showed  me  much  both  in  and  out 
of  Buenos  Ayres.  I  found  every  one  in  the 
capital  obliging  to  a  degree,  and  it  would  be 
rank  injustice  to  place  M.  Benito  Villanueva  in 
a  category  by  himself  under  this  heading.  I  will 
only  say,  therefore,  that  if  many  equalled  him, 
none  surpassed  him. 

Who  better  fitted  to  do  the  honours  of  the 
Palermo  racecourse  than  M.  Villanueva? 
Modern  arrangements,  elegant  fittings;  no  con- 
venience missing.  The  Jockey  Club  Stand  has 
a  first-class  restaurant  on  its  upper  story,  where 
its  members  who  are  just  sufficiently  interested 
in  the  racing  to  make  their  bets  can  enjoy  at 
the  same  time  the  pleasures  of  the  table  and  a 
view  of  the  winning-post.  Betting  is  fabulously 
high.  But  the  racecourse  is  open  to  the  same 
objection  as  Palermo.  What  is  to  be  said  of 
the  hideous  embankment  of  yellow  clay  that  bars 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   167 

the  landscape?  Surely  the  setting  of  a  race- 
course is  not  without  its  importance.  As  far  as 
the  convenience  of  the  situation  goes,  this  one 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  But  really,  seeing 
the  small  part  played  in  an  afternoon's  racing 
by  the  events  themselves,  how  is  it  that  the  art- 
ists who  laid  out  this  hippodrome  neglected  to 
provide  a  lovely  view  for  the  joy  and  repose  of 
the  visitors'  eyes?  They  talk  of  masking  the 
slope  by  plantations,  but  the  trains  that  traverse 
the  course  from  one  end  to  the  other  will  still 
remain  visible.  I  have  nothing  against  this 
form  of  amusement,  though  I  think  it  almost  a 
pity  not  to  reserve  it  for  the  delectation  of  the 
ranchos  out  on  the  Pampas,  since  there  is  no 
part  of  the  plain  where  it  might  not  be  enjoyed. 
Then  the  displaced  railway  would  allow  of  a 
cutting  which  would  let  in  a  great  flood  of  light 
as  far  down  as  Rio. 

The  racing  public,  from  horses  to  humans,  be- 
ing everywhere  the  same,  there  would  be  nothing 
to  say  of  either  professionals  or  spectators,  had  I 
not  noticed  that  the  fair  sex  of  Buenos  Ayres,  as 
seen  in  the  stands,  were  wearing  with  confident 
the  latest  creations  of  Parisian  fashions, 


168          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

and  more  than  made  up  in  quality  for  their  pos- 
sible inferiority  in  quantity  as  compared  with 
a  Longchamp  gathering.  I  will  not  say  that 
there  were  not  a  few  errors  in  technical  details 
here  and  there.  But  it  was  pleasant  to  see  that 
some  of  our  audacious  Parisian  freaks,  contrary 
to  what  one  might  imagine,  find  only  the  faintest 
of  echoes  in  these  brilliant  meetings.  The  rea- 
son is  that  the  cunning  display  of  eccentricities 
by  beauties  who  have  nothing  to  lose  cannot 
here,  as  at  home,  react  on  the  toilettes  of  society 
women  by  consequence  of  a  universal  search 
after  novelties  whose  sole  object  is  to  attract 
attention.  The  reason  is  simple.  In  Buenos 
Ayres  there  is  no  demi-monde,  for  the  few  belles 
who  cross  the  ocean  to  come  here  are  birds  of 
passage  merely,  and  cannot  be  said  to  form  a 
class.  When  present  they  avoid  the  grand- 
stands of  the  racecourse  and  take  refuge  in  the 
paddock,  where  their  loneliness  makes  them 
rather  an  object  of  public  pity. 

Still  in  Senor  Villanueva's  company,  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  visiting  the  Tigre,  the  finest  re- 
creation ground  open  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Buenos  Ayres.  But  do  not  be  misled  by  the  name 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   169 

to  fancy  that  it  is  a  menagerie.  There  were,  it 
appears,  in  distant  ages,  some  few  great  cats 
that  ventured  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Parana 
in  order  to  steal  a  breakfast  at  the  expense  of 
the  citizens  of  the  capital.  Times  have  greatly 
changed.  It  is  now  the  honest  Argentine  who 
comes  here  to  get  a  meal  after  having  taken 
proper  steps  to  ensure  the  absence  of  the  tiger. 
The  delta  of  the  Parana  is  formed  by  an  inex- 
tricable network  of  channels,  dotted  with  in- 
numerable islets,  whose  luxuriant  vegetation  has 
won  for  them  the  pretty  name  of  a  "  Venice^of 
Gardens^*  In  all  this  floating  land  imagine 
trees  of  every  kind  leaning  over  the  water  as 
though  attracted  by  the  moving  reflection  of 
their  foliage;  call  up  a  picture  of  orchards  in 
the  glory  of  their  spring  or  autumn  dress;  fling 
amongst  the  groves  an  orgy  of  wild  and  cul- 
tivated flowers ;  people  the  shade  of  the  branches 
with  large  and  small  boats  filled  with  merry 
young  people,  whose  song  and  laughter  blend 
with  the  music  of  the  oars,  and  you  will  have 
an  idea  of  the  pastimes  that  the  Tigre  can  offer. 
Quintas,  chalets,  built  on  piles,  hotels,  restau- 
rants, wine-shops,  resorts  of  all  kinds,  suited  to 


170          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

all  classes  of  society,  provide  a  peaceful  asylum 
for  fete  days  and  holidays,  far  from  the  turmoil 
and  bustle  of  Buenos  Ayres.  Following  the 
stream  upwards,  past  miles  of  wood  and  water, 
there  are  still  more  picturesque  sites  to  be 
visited,  where  man  has  not  yet  set  his  hand, 
and  the  boat  glides  in  and  out  of  these  beflowered 
waterways  as  far  as  Parana,  whence  come  the 
big  boats  from  Paraguay  laden  with  oranges, 
their  decks  shining  in  the  sunlight  like  some 
quaint  palace  of  ruddy  gold. 

The  Tigre  is  reached  by  railway  in  twenty 
minutes,  and  a  skiff  bespoken  in  advance  awaits 
you  at  the  station.  But  Senor  Villanueva,  whom 
nothing  can  daunt,  wanted  to  try  a  new  road, 
said  to  be  just  finished,  in  his  motor-car.  Now, 
carriage  roads  are  not  a  strong  point  in  this 
country,  where  no  stones  are  to  be  found.  How- 
ever, after  a  journey  that  recalled  at  times  the 
passage  over  the  rollers  at  Auteuil  Lock,  we 
duly  and  miraculously  reached  the  Tigre  with- 
out quite  wrecking  the  car,  but  not  without  some 
damage  to  our  more  sensitive  and  intimate  or- 
gans. Wherefore  we  were  assailed  by  a  longing 
for  the  chaises-longues  and  easy-chairs  of  our 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   171 

hotel,  which  drew  us  forthwith  to  the  booking- 
office  of  the  railway-station,  whence  modestly 
and  quickly  we  made  our  way  back. 

Since  the  subject  of  hotel  furnishings  thus 
comes  under  my  pen,  why  not  say  a4  once  that 
in  the  Argentine,  as  in  Brazil,  the  internal 
arrangements  of  the  houses  show  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  is  spent  out  of  doors? 
Italy,  with  its  open-air  life,  was  naturally  the 
land  to  which  the  Argentine  turned  for  architects^ 
to  supply  florid  furniture,  meant  rather  to  look 
at  than  to  use;  and  when  to  this  is  added  cheap 
German  goods  with  their  clumsy  designs,  one 
may  be  pardoned  for  finding  a  lack  of  grace  as 
of  comfort,  to  a  French  way  of  thinking.1  In 
aristocratic  salons  the  best  Parisian  upholster- 
ers have  at  least  left  their  mark — with  a  little 
overcrowding  in  effect,  if  the  truth  must  be  told. 
In  a  few,  where  "antiques"  were  discernible, 
there  were  evidences  of  an  appreciation  of  just 
proportions  and  simplicity.  But  my  criticisms 
must  be  taken  in  the  most  general  way  possible. 
It  is  in  the  hotels  that  one  feels  the  farthest 

1  The  dearness  of  living  in  Buenos  Ayres  and  especially 
of  rents  is  a  common  theme  among  travellers. 


172          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

from  Europe,  and  this  in  spite  of  a  manifest 
attempt  to  do  things  well.  A  continual  change 
of  servants  and  a  bad  division  of  labour  ensure 
infinite  discomfort  for  the  traveller.  There  is, 
it  is  true,  central  heating,  but  it  works  badly. 
Is  the  pampero  blowing?  The  pipes  of  the 
radiators  shake  the  window-panes  with  their 
tempestuous  snorting  and  bubbling,  waking  you 
out  of  your  sleep  with  the  suddenness  of  their 
noise;  but  they  diffuse  only  cold  air.1  An 
electric  heating  apparatus,  hastily  put  in,  must 
be  used  to  supplement  the  other.  Do  you  want 
to  lock  up  some  papers?  You  may,  perhaps, 
after  a  long  search,  find  a  key  in  your  room,  but 
it  will  assuredly  fit  none  of  the  locks.  As  I 
was  tiresome  enough  to  insist,  the  manager, 
anxious  to  oblige  me,  ordered  his  own  safe  to 
be  placed  in  my  apartment,  with  all  his  accounts 
therein.  When  I  found  the  drawer  that  was 
placed  at  my  disposal,  I  found  money  in  it !  Oh, 
marvellous  hospitality ! 

1 1  understand  there  is  a  scheme  for  adding  a  system 
of  central  cooling  for  summer  use  in  hotels  and  private 
houses  in  hot  climates.  Nothing  would  be  easier  or  more 
useful.  Even  in  our  own  land  there  are  many  days  in 
the  season  when  we  should  be  glad  of  cool  radiators. 


ARGENTINE  TYPES,  MANNERS,  ETC.   173 

To  the  new  houses  in  the  town  chimneys  are 
being  added.  The  European  who  comes  to  the 
Argentine  for  thpjg^g^nTithsu-,^ Jmm^.Tniy 
August— can  but  be  delighted  with  the  change. 
But,  meantime,  he  suffers  keenly  from  the  cold, 
for  if  the  sun  shines  perseveringly  in  a  cloudless 
sky,  an  icy  south  wind  will  prove  very  trying  to 
Europeans  who  are  not  accustomed  to  such  sharp 
contrasts.1  As  for  the  summer  season,  which 
I  have  not  tried,  every  one  talked  of  its  charms, 
the  greatest  being,  apparently,  to  go  and  wipe 
one's  brow  at  the  Tigre,  at  Mar  del  Plata,  or 
on  the  estancia,  in  default  of  the  mountain  re- 
sorts within  reach  of  the  Brazilians. 

It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  Argentine  cookery 
—which  is  rather  international  than  local — al- 
ways excepting  those  households  that  boast  a 
French  chef.  The  influence  of  Italy,  with  her 
macaroni  and  her  cheese,  predominates.  The 
vegetables  are  mediocre;  the  fruit  too  tropical, 
or,  if  European,  spoilt  by  the  effect  of  the 
tropics.  Lobsters  and  European  fish,  imported 

1  It  is  often  said  that  Buenos  Ayres  has  a  "  Nice 
winter."  This  is  strictly  true.  The  sun  is  rarely  want- 
ing, and  the  role  of  the  Mistral  is  played  by  the  pampero 
with  great  success. 


174          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

frozen,  are  not  to  be  recommended;  table  water 
is  excellent.  The  national  dishes,  puchero,  or 
boiled  beef,  good  when  the  animal  has  not  been 
slaughtered  the  same  morning;  asado,  lamb, 
roasted  whole — savoury  souvenir  of  my  excur- 
sions in  Greece,  where  it  is  to  be  met  under 
the  name  of  lamb  a  la  palikare.  I  might  add 
a  long  list  whose  sole  interest  would  be  the 
strange-sounding  names  given  to  familiar  dishes. 
Still,  as  the  main  conditions  of  man  and  com- 
munities are  necessarily  unvarying,  is  it  not  in 
appearances  and  forms  of  expression  that  we 
find  variety? 


CHAPTER  VII 

ARGENTINE  POLITICS 

[BITING  about  a  country,  with  no 
dogmatic  intention,  but  drawing 
at  haphazard  from  memory  im- 
pressions received,  has  this  ad- 
vantage, that  instead  of  setting  down  general 
theories  that  are  always  open  to  argument,  cer- 
tain living  traits  may  be  seized  upon  which,  by 
the  very  fact  that  they  are  open  to  more  than 
one  interpretation,  demand  the  constant  col- 
laboration of  writer  and  reader.  The  method — 
if  one  may  apply  so  big  a  word  to  so  small  a 
result — gives  me  an  opportunity  of  making  a 
few  observations  about  the  organisation  and 
working  of  the  Argentine  Government. 

It  seemed  quite  natural  to  the  intellectuals 
of  a  democratic  Republic  that  a  democrat  should 
come  out  to  talk  to  them  about  democracy,  to 

discuss  the  serious  problems  it  presents  and  the 

175 


176  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

solutions  that  time  is  more  or  less  rapidly  work- 
ing out  for  them.  Nevertheless,  it  is  not  with- 
out some  legitimate  trepidation  that  one  faces 
a  public  completely  unknown,  proud  probably 
of  its  achievements,  ardently  hopeful  certainly 
for  the  future,  and  inclined,  no  doubt,  thanks  to 
the  very  sincerity  of  its  labours,  to  be  carried 
away  by  an  excess  of  jealous  susceptibility.  I 
was  quickly  reassured.  The  consciousness  of  a 
great  work  accomplished,  a  keen  appreciation  of 
the  finely  organised  effort  whose  astounding  re- 
sults are  revealed  anew  each  day,  give  to  the 
Argentine  people  too  just  a  confidence  in  the 
value  of  their  activity  for  them  to  see  more  in 
any  courteous  criticism  than  a  good  opportunity 
of  improving  on  their  past — on  condition,  nat- 
urally, that  the  criticism  appear  to  be  well 
founded.  The  critic  is  thus  disarmed,  and  lets 
fall  his  weapons  for  fear  lest  a  shaft  intended 
only  to  graze  the  skin  should  penetrate  deeper 
and  inspire  a  weakening  doubt  in  the  mind  of 
men  who  are  engaged,  body  and  soul,  in  a 
tremendous  struggle  after  social  progress. 

In  matters  of  government  the  Argentines  are 
neither  better  nor  worse  off  than  any  people  of 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  177 

Europe  where  freedom  of  speech  has  begun  its 
work.  But,  notwithstandmg^the  astonishing 
rapidity  of  assimilation  that  distinguishes  this 
land,  there  is  as  yet  too  little  homogeneity  in  the 
masses  for  the  possibility  of  any  influence  from 
below  on  the  problems  of  the  day,  apart,  of 
course,  from  matters  that  make  appeal  to  pa- 
triotism, which  inevitably  provoke  unanimity. 
There  are  many  other  countries  of  which,  in 
spite  of  appearances  to  the  contrary,  the  same 
might  be  said. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  politicians,  who  are  the 
more  or _ less-  official  mouthpieces  of  that  vague 
concourse  of  general  opinions  which  we  call 
the  mind  of  the  public,  may  very  easily  mis- 
take the  ephemeral  demands  of  a  party  for  the 
permanent  interest  of  the  country. 

A  point  to  be  noticed  is  that  faction  fights, 
which  have  for  so  long  brought  bloodshed  into 
the  cities  and  villages  of  South  America,  are 
now  disappearing.  It  is  scarcely  possible,  none 
the  less,  for  all  traces  of  violence  to  depart, 
leaving  no  reminder  of  movements  which  have 
made  of  political  changes  one  long  series  of  hys- 
terics. Autocracy  and  sudden  upheavals  are 


178          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

inseparable.  This  is  the  lesson  that  the  races  of 
the  Iberian  Peninsula  have  best  learnt  from 
their  governors.  In  Brazil,  where  an  admirable 
economic  movement  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a 
remarkable  development  of  orderly  progress  and 
civic  peace,  recent  events  have  shown  what  fires 
are  smouldering  beneath  the  molten  streams  of 
a  dying  volcano.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  our 
friends  will  not  be  found  lacking  either  in  the 
patience  or  the  courage  necessary  to  impose  on 
the  public  a  salutary  respect  for  law!  In 
Uruguay,  a  land  of  Latin  amiability,  the  rage  of 
revolution  has  frequently  broken  out;  and  if,  to 
all  appearances,  there  is  calm  to-day,  Whites 
and  Reds  still  exhibit  mutual  hostility  without 
troubling  to  find  reasons  that  might  explain,  if 
not  justify,  recourse  to  arms.  -Tfae-Argentinos 
appear  farther  removed  from  the  danger  of  re- 
volutionary shocks.  "  Wealth  has  quieted,  us," 
said  a  politician.  This  is  no  new  thing.  All 
activities  profit  by  undisturbed  work  and  lose 
by  deeds  of  violence.  Lucrative  labour  and  the 
fear  of  losing  what  has  been  acquired  go  to 
make  up  a  fund  of  prudence. 

But  while,  happily,  in  the  Argentine  there  is 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  179 

no  present  menace  of  revolution,  I  cannot  deny 
that  in  the  provinces  I  often  heard  rumours  of 
it.  Insurrection  seemed  imminent.  Precautions 
were  taken  to  protect  arsenals.  And  when  I 
inquired  the  reason  for  such  a  movement,  I  was 
invariably  told  that  no  one  knew,  but  that  no 
doubt  there  were  malcontents.  One  need  not 
go  as  far  as  the  Argentine  to  seek  for  them. 
As  all  these  alarms  ended  in  nothing,  I  must 
put  them  down  as  a  verbal  echo  of  a  vanished 
epoch.  I  can  but  admire  the  profound  peace 
that  has  succeeded  to  the  fury  of  the  past,  for 
the  Argentine  who,  in  revolution,  exposed  his 
person  so  light-heartedly  did  not  fear  to  take 
the  life  of  his  enemy. 

But  can  it  be  affirmed  that  in  no  department 
of  the  Administration  there  has  survived  some 
trace  of  the  cavalier  methods  of  former  days? 
Is  it  true  that  some  officials  do  as  they  like 
with  the  people  committed  to  their  charge,  and 
inflict  treatment  that  is  passively  borne  for  the 
moment,  but  may  lead  to  terrible  reprisals  later? 
It  was  often  stated  in  my  hearing,  but  I  could 
never  obtain  any  proof.  I  shall  not  make  my- 
self the  echo  of  slanders  and  calumny,  which,  in 


180          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

all  lands,  are  the  weapons  used  by  public  men 
against  each  other.  I  will  only  take  the  liberty 
of  reminding  my  Argentine  friends  that  one 
never  need  fear  excess  on  the  side  of  a  watchful 
control  over  Government  offices. 

M.  Thi6baud,  the  Minister  of  France,  pre- 
sented me  to  M.  Figueroa  Alcorta,  the  President 
of  the  Kepublic.1  He  gave  me  the  most  cor- 
dially courteous  of  receptions,  prompted,  of 
course,  by  the  respect  and  friendship  that  Ar- 
gentine statesmen  have  for  France.  The  Presi- 
dent's first  words  were  an  inquiry  as  to  whether 
I  was  as  comfortable  at  the  Palace  Hotel  as 
at  the  Hotel  du  Mouton,  in  Chantonnay  (Ven- 
ded). This  showed  me  that  the  President  of 
the  Argentine  Eepublic  was  a  reader  of  the 
Illustration,  for  a  photograph  of  that  more  than 
modest  establishment  was  recently  published  in 
the  columns  of  the  review  on  the  occasion  of  an 
expedition  I  made  to  my  native  country,  when  I 
put  up  at  the  little  inn.  I  assured  him  that  the 
resources  of  Buenos  Ayres  were  infinitely  su- 

*I  take  this  opportunity  of  thanking  M.  and  Mme. 
Thiebaud  for  the  friendly  welcome  I  found  at  the  French 
Legation. 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  181 

perior,  and  from  this  we  wandered  off  into  a 
very  interesting  talk  about  our  two  countries. 

M.  Figueroa  Alcorta  was  Vice-President  of  the 
Republic  when  the  death  of  President  Quintana 
called  him  to  the  supreme  magistratere.  I  fan- 
cied that  a  good  many  people  found  it  hard  to 
forgive  him  this  unlooked-for  good  fortune. 
Some  journalists  thought  it  funny  to  create  for 
him  the  reputation  of  a  "  Jettatore,"  an  inex- 
haustible subject  for  spiteful  tales  in  the  Oppo- 
sition sheets.  They  say  the  story  has  not  been 
without  influence  on  the  feminine  world,  spe- 
cially prone  to  superstition.  M.  Figueroa 
Alcorta  appears  to  bear  the  misfortune  with 
calm  courage.  He  talks  of  the  Argentine  with 
a  modesty  that  does  not  exclude  a  just  pride, 
and  for  France  he  had  only  sympathetic  ad- 
miration. Let  me  say  also  that  President  Saenz 
Pena,  whom  I  twice  saw  in  Buenos  Ayres,  is  a 
devoted  friend  to  France  and  French  culture. 
It  is  my  duty  to  add  that  M.  Saenz  Pena's  at- 
tention has  been  called  to  certain  lapses  in  the 
administration,  and  he  is  firmly  resolved  to  put 
an  end  to  them. 

The  Minister   of  Foreign  Affairs,   M.   de  la 


182          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Plaza,  has,  since  my  journey,  become  Vice- 
President  of  the  Kepublic.  He  is  rather  heavy 
and  cold  in  appearance — with  the  silent  gravity 
of  the  cacique,  it  is  said — but  he  is  a  man  of 
profound  culture  and  keen  mind,  and  it  is  not 
impossible  that  his  taciturnity  and  slowness  of 
speech  are  merely  diplomatic.  He  enjoys  the 
-reputation  of  being  a  thorough  Anglomaniac,  but 
this,  fortunately,  does  not  preclude  him  from 
being  also  a  Francophil.1 

I  must  mention  the  Minister  of  Public  Works, 
M.  Ramos  Mexia,  who  was  continued  in  his  im- 
portant office  by  President  Saenz  Pena  when  the 
Cabinet  was  new-formed.  In  a  country  where 
great  public  works  are  constantly  being  under- 
taken, an  upright  mind  and  an  iron  will,  united 
to  a  spotless  reputation,  are  all  needed  to  resist 
the  overtures  of  the  large  European  firms  that 
are  clamouring  for  contracts.  A  vast  field  for 
quarrels,  more  or  less  veiled  personal  attacks, 

1  If  to  Argentine  diplomacy  the  rigidity  of  our  famous 
chapel  on  the  Quai  d'Orsay  be  unknown,  they  have  none 
the  less  given  us  first-class  men — such,  for  instance  as  the 
present  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  Ernesto  Bosch, 
who  is  much  esteemed  in  the  French  political  world,  and 
his  worthy  successor  in  Paris,  M.  Enrique  Rodriguez 
Larreta. 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  183 

and  unending  recriminations.  I  do  not  want  to 
recriminate  myself,  or,  indeed,  to  touch  on  any 
delicate  questions;  yet  I  must  regret  the  pre- 
ference that  has  been  shown  for  Krupp  cannon, 
when  innumerable  experiments  have  demon- 
strated the  infinite  superiority  of  French  guns.  ' 

I  have  already  gointed  out  that  England,  by 
our  wilful  negligence,  managed  to  obtain  the 
right  of  buildiag^practically  the  whole  of  the 
railway  system.  She  has  done  the  work  to 
the  satfsfaTttoli  of  the  public,  and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  the  way  Gernmnj  has  installed  the 
ele£tri£. system s.  France  triumphs  in  the  ports 
of  Rosario,  Montevideo,  Pernambuco,  Bahia- 
Blanca,  and  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  That  is  all  I 
can  say,  for  at  the  moment  there  exists  the  keen- 
est European  competition  in  the  harbour  works 
of  Mar  del  Plata  and  Buenos  Ayres.  Some  com- 
plain that  Ramos  Mexia  has  been  too  favourable 
to  England.  He  is,  however,  first  and  foremost 
an  Argentine,  and  he  uses  his  right  to  take  the 
best  from  each  country. 

If  there  has  been  in  the  past  some  little  fric- 
tion, I  fancy  it  is  now  over;  it  hardly  could  be 
otherwise,  for  M.  Ramos  Mexia  is  a  warm  ad- 


184          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

mirer  of  French  culture,  and  as  well  acquainted 
with  our  classics  as  our  contemporaries,  beside 
being  a  regular  attendant  at  the  lectures  at  the 
Sorbonne  and  College  de  France  whenever  he  is 
able  to  take  a  little  recreation  in  Paris.  Need 
I  add  that  Mme.  Eamos  Mexia  is  the  most  French 
of  all  the  Argentines  whom  I  met — French  in 
the  graciousness  of  her  welcome  and  French  in 
charm  of  conversation. 

We  know  that  in  the  Argentine  (and  perhaps 
in  all  South  American  republics,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Chili)  Ministers jare  not  responsible 
t^-Ea£liament  In  Chili,  Parliamentary  coali- 
tions amuse  themselves  by  knocking  over  Min- 
isters like  ninepins.  In  the  Argentine  it  is  the 
rule — to  which  there  are  exceptions— -for__Mjn- 
isters  to  follow  the  President,  whose  agents  they 
are,  having  the  sole  function  of  obtaining  from 
the  Chambers  the  funds  required  to  carry  on 
the  administration.  Before  I  weigh  up  the  ad- 
vantages and  disadvantages  of  this  system,  which 
was  imported  ready-made  by  South  America 
from  the  north,  let  me  record  the  surprise  I 
felt  when  I  discovered  that,  notwithstanding  the 
absurd  stories  told  of  the  lack  of  measure  in 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  185 

"  hot  countries,"  a  South  American  assembly 
could  give  a  lesson  in  dignity  to  more  than  one 
European  Parliament.  In  England,  as  we 
know,  measures  have  been  taken  to  prevent  per- 
sonal questions  from  being  introduced  into  de- 
bates, where  the  interests  of  the  public  alone 
occupy  members'  attention.  Here  the  chival- 
rous temperament  of  Castile  suffices  as  a  guaran- 
tee against  excesses  of  language  or  abuses  at  the 
hands  of  the  majority.  For  instance,  in  some 
cases  a  speaker  is  granted  only  ten  minutes  in 
which  to  give  the  merest  sketch  of  his  Bill.  If 
the  orator  be  a  member  of  the  minority,  how- 
ever, Speaker  and  Chamber  make  it  a  point  of 
honour  to  let  him  take  as  long  as  he  likes.  If 
he  goes  too  far  the  rule  is  applied;  but  this,  I 
was  assured,  never  happens.  Finally,  "  it  is 
our  constant  rule,"  said  a  member  well  quali- 
fied to  make  the  statement,  "  not  to  let  slip  allu- 
sions in  the  course  of  a  debate  that  might  hurt 
the  feelings  of  a  colleague.  This  requires  no 
effort.  It  is  just  a  habit  one  can  acquire."  May 
the  "  habit "  be  shortly  acquired  in  all  lands ! 

Now  that  the  tide  of  free  civilisation  is  setting 
towards  a  dissolution  of  all  autocratic  Powers, 


186  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

from  Russia  to  Persia,  and  even  to  China,  in- 
stituting the  parliamentary  system  which  we  have 
come  to  regard  as  the  best  instrument  for  con- 
trolling and  liberating  the  democracy,  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact  that,  in  practice,  Parliament  is 
much  criticised,  more  particularly  in  countries 
where  it  was  only  obtained  after  long  and  pain- 
ful struggles.  The  reason,  to  my  mind,  must  be 
sought  in  the  unpardonable  waste  of  time  in 
debates,  where  free  rein  is  given  to  a  puerile 
love  of  theatrical  display.  In  the  absence  of  any 
salutary  check  on  the  humours  of  orators,  too 
little  attention  is  given  to  bringing  the  discus- 
sions to  a  practical  conclusion.  A  good  re- 
former should  be  able  first  to  reform  himself. 

It  is  less  the  Parliament  than  the  executive 
that  attracts  the  European  observer  of  Ameri- 
can institutions.  This  is  because  Parliament  is 
dominated  by  the  executive,  instead  of  being  it- 
self the  dominating  power.  The  South  American 
republics  hastened  to  copy  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  of  the  North,  which  is  the 
original  creation  of  the  revolution  of  1776,  and 
adapted,  in  a  marvellous  degree,  to  the  needs, 
idea,  and  sentiment  of  the  country.  Adopting 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  187 

its  text,  if  not  its  spirit,  the  South  Americans 
fell  into  the  same  error  as  Europe  has  done  in 
copying  the  English  Constitution  in  the  letter, 
but  not  in  the  spirit  and  sense  given  to  it  by 
the  people  whom  it  justly  claims  to  express. 

Without  entering  on  a  discussion  that  would 
lead  me  too  far,  I  could  not  refrain  from  remark- 
ing that  in  actual  working  the  North  American  - 
institutions  have  become  distorted  in  South 
Americana  change  rendered  inevitable  by  the 
different  lev^l  of  public  education  and  the  geo- 
graphical distribution  of  the  population.  It 
was  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  earliest 
civilisation  should  partake  of  the  constitution 
of  states  or  provinces  destined  later  to  form  a 
federation,  but  as  long  as  the  Motherland  im- 
ported the  sovereign  authority  from  outside,  the 
struggles  between  a  budding  liberty  and  an 
unchecked  autocracy  were  unceasing.  Once  self- 
government  had  been  proclaimed,  it  became 
obligatory  to  constitute  such  elements  of  public 
life  as  should  make  its  exercise  possible.  Now, 
for  this,  it  is  not  enough  to  draw  up  a  code 
of  principles.  We  cannot,  then,  be  surprised  if 
the  South  American  races,  fondly  attached  to 


188          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

their  own  institutions,  which  maintain  the  prin- 
ciple of  an  autonomy  of  federated  States  and 
provide  for  their  idealism  a  verbal  satisfaction, 
inestimable,  as  they  think,  are  yet  (just  like 
other  nations  now  undergoing  democratic  evo- 
lution) far  enough  from  an  adequate  realisation 
of  their  idea.  We  can  scarcely  expect  any  con- 
certed political  action  from  men  (often  of 
foreign  birth)  who  are  scattered  all  across  the 
Pampas  and  separated  by  enormous  distances. 
And,  as  regards  the  cities,  great  or  small,  a  po- 
litical elite  will  more  easily  organise  itself — 
especially  where  an  absence  of  public  opinion 
facilitates  the  abuse  of  power — than  will  the 
"  sovereign  people  "  be  brought  to  exercise  their 
sovereignty  (and  this  we  see  even  in  Europe). 
Hence  the  evils  often  made  public,  which  are 
but  striking  examples  of  what  we  see  elsewhere; 
notably,  the  indifference  of  tjie_ej^to^-a4~4jody, 
evidenced  by  the  contemptibly  small  iMraiker_  of 
voters  wha  answer  the  summons  to  the  ballot — 
and  of  these  few  some  have  been  brought  thither 
by  who  knows  what  means!  To  this  public 
apathy  must  be  added  the  abstention  of  the 
middle  classes,  always  difficult  to  incite  to  a 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  189 

common  political  action,  who  thus  leave  a  wider 
field  than  is  desirable  to  the  machinations  of 
the  professional  politician,  with  his  methods, 
direct  or  indirect,  of  bringing  pressure  upon 
the  elector. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  speaking  of  the  evil. 
But  at  the  same  time  I  must  point  out  that  if 
the  mind  of  the  public — such  as  the  intellectual 
elite  of  the  nation  have  made  it — experiences 
some  difficulty  in  getting  used  to  the  slow 
methods  of  organised  political  action,  the  inde- 
pendent spirit  and  personal  dignity  of  the  citi- 
zens are  so  strong x  that  a  force  of  public 
opinion  is  gradually  evolving  which,  in  spite  of 
some  backsliding,  will  soon  be  powerful  enough 
to  impose  its  decisions  on  the  world  of  political 
intrigue.  For  instance  it.  is .  ireouentlv  said 
that  the  President  of  the  Republic  does,  in  effect, 
nominate  his  successor  by  reason  of  his  authority 
with  the  State  Legislature,  and  there  is  a  grain 
of  truth  in  the  assertion.  Yet  if  it  were  strictly 
true,  the  same  party  would  remain  in  perpetuity 

1  It  pleases  me  to  note  the  triumph  of  pride  over  vanity 
shown  in  the  fact  that  the  Argentinos  have  deliberately 
renounced  the  childish  folly  of  orders. 


190          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

in  power,  and  this  we  know  is  not  the  case. 
Thus  public  opinion,  when  it  pronounces  itself 
with  sufficient  decision,  can,  with  the  help  of 
a  wholesome  fear  of  revolt,  vanquish  all  resist- 
ance and  bring  in  its  candidate.  In  this  way 
any  eventual  abuse  of  personal  influence  is,  in 
effect,  prevented,  and  this  is  precisely  what  hap- 
pened in  the  case  of  the  election  of  M.  Saenz 
Pefia.  I  fear  that  nowhere  are  institutions 
worked  according  to  rule.  Before  throwing 
stones  at  the  Argentine,  let  us  look  at  our  own 
deficiencies. 

^  The^^eak^^lace^in  ^  South  American  consti- 
tutions, as  organised  on  the  theory  of  Jefferson, 
appears  to  us  Europeans  to  lie  in  the  fact  that 
too  much  power  is  vested  in  the  individual.  In 
ouF  continent  this  w6uld  6pcn  the  door  to  the 
danger  of  a  reconstitution  of  the  forces  of  the 
past,  whose  only  hope  now  lies  in  the  possibility 
of  a  surprise.  In  America  a  federation  of  di- 
vided Powers  offers  so  many  different  centres 
of  resistance  (providing  always  that  each  State 
Government  enjoys  a  real  autonomy)  to  any 
attempt  at  usurpation.  The  American  of  the 
South  is  no  less  attached  than  his  brother  of  the 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  191 

North  to  the  principle  of  autonomy  of  States. 
It  only  remains  for  him  to  make  it  a  reality. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  moreover,  the  theoretic 
independence  of  Ministers  and  Parliament  does 
not  hold  together,  in  view  of  the  omnipotence 
of  the  representative  assemblies  in  matters  of 
finance.  This  system  has  the  advantage  of 
making  a  series  of  crises  impossible,  but  a  Min- 
ister must,  and  always  does,  disappear  when  a 
succession  of  votes  proves  that  he  no  longer 
possesses  the  confidence  of  Parliament. 

In  America,  as  in  Europe,  tkg  T»rpPff  iff  t.hp 
highest-4)Qw_er_  &t tex...  .the_  Go_Yernjnent.  I  say 
"  after,"  because  we  must  believe  the  Constitu- 
tion. It  is,  however,  only  too  true  that  the 
moral  paralysis  that  distinguishes  certain 
"  popular  leaders,"  whose  chief  anxiety  is  to 
trim  their  course  to  every  wind  that  blows, 
leaves  to  any  one  who  claims  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  public  opinion  a  degree  of  authority 
before  which  the  individuality  of  the  pretended 
governing  body,  in  spite  of  its  pomp  of  speeches, 
is  apt  to  disappear. 

But  although  the  Press  plays  unquestionably 
a  very  important  role  in  the  Argentine,  it  did 


192          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

not  appear  to  me  that  the  evil  went  as  far  as 
this.  Not  but  what,  perhaps,  the  man  who  owns 
a  newspaper  is  as  much  inclined  here  as  any- 
where to  make  the  most  use  he  can  of  its  in- 
fluence. But  in  a  land  that  calls  out  the  best 
in  any  man,  even  the  Latin,  usually  so  easy  a 
prey  to  the  designs  of  the  political  revolutionary, 
manages  to  preserve  enough  independence  of 
character  to  offer  an  effective  resistance  to  pro- 
jects that  are  too  flagrantly  opposed  to  his  own 
calmer  views. 

Argentine  statesmen,  worthy  the  name,  are 
not  content  to  hold  opinions  of  their  own;  they 
are  perfectly  capable  of  the  tenacity  necessary 
to  put  a  scheme  into  execution  and  carry  it 
through.  Clearly  the  advantages  that  go  to 
make  up  the  success  of  the  Argentine  Republic 
would  count  for  nothing  were  there  no  strong 
minds  to  grasp  the  higher  principles  of  public 
interest  and  no  strong  hearts  to  enforce  their 
practice.  The  ArgejJlneJs^  a  battlefield  where 
every  kind  of  moral  force,-  including  politics 
and  sociology,  is  now  in. the. full  heat  of  action, 
and  exposed  to  all  the  chances  and  changes 
common  to  weak  humanl 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  193 

Public  activity  is  here,  as  in  all  countries, 
manifested  chiefly  by  means  ot.4*a£liesy  a  neces- . 
sity,  practically,  which  has  at  least  as  many 
advantages  as  disadvantages.  Casuists  have 
argued  much  about  the  relative  qualities  of 
"  human  "  parties  and  those  of  any  given  intel- 
lectual symbol.  The  Argentine  Government  is4 
not  based  upon  a  traditional  or  historic  fact, 
but  on  a  theory  of  right  in  which  originates  an 
organisation  of  justice  and  liberty  that  can  only 
pass  from  principle  to  practice  when  the  citizens 
are  capable  of  clothing  its  bare  bones  with  the 
living  sinews  of  action ;  but  this  fact  in  no 
sense  changes  the  problem,  since  man  without 
the  intellectual  symbol  or  idea  can  be  only  a 
disturbing  force,  and  the  idea  in  politics  has 
no  value  apart  from  the  man  who  can  give  it 
life. 

The  old-fashioned  Press  of  ideas  has  made 
prodigious  strides  since  the  days  of  Armand 
Carrel,  and  the  modern  reader  is  more  espe- 
cially greedy  for  facts.  With  these  before  him 
he  forms  his  own  opinions,  and  the  most  the 
writer  can  do  is  to  prepare  the  way  towards 
a  given  deduction,  without  being  able  to  dis- 
13 


194          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

count  its  acceptance  with  any  certainty.  In 
reality,  tlie  Argentine  Press  is  no  better  and  no 
worse  than  that  of  any  free  countries;  and, 
whether  as  regards  news  or  party  politics,  the 
newspapers  are  extremely  well  conducted.1  Not 
but  that  you  may  find  occasional  violence  of 
language,  as  happens  everywhere,  but  there  are 
extremes  which  the  public  will  not  tolerate. 
There  are  no  pornographic  Press  and  no  pic- 
tures of  a  kind  to  defile  the  eyes  of  every 
passer-by.  On  this  we  may  congratulate  a  race 
whose  healthy  energies  find  too  continuous  em- 
ployment in  the  sunshine  for  them  to  develop 
any  tendency  towards  the  excesses  of  "  civilised  " 
corruption. 

The  Prensa  is,  as  we  all  know,  the  leading 
newspaper  of  the  South  American  continent. 
Under  the  skilful  control  of  its  founder,  M. 
Paz,  the  Prensa  has  reached  a  state  of  pro- 
sperity which,  within  the  limits  of  its  field  of 
action,  makes  it  the  equal  of  any  advertising 
agency  in  the  world.  It  is  a  paper  that  has  to 

1  Thanks  to  the  difference  in  the  clocks,  the  Buenos 
Ayres  newspapers  are  able  to  publish  in  their  morning 
editions  news  appearing  at  the  same  time  in  London  and 
Paris. 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  195 

be  reckoned  with  by  every  party,  for  although 
not  officially  attached  to  any  group  of  politi- 
cians, it  obviously  seeks — while  maintaining  the 
principles  of  democratic  evolution — to  hold  the 
balance  between  all  parties,  ready  if  necessary 
to  intervene  at  the  critical  moment.  Just  now 
its  general  editor  is  M.  Ezequiel  Paz,  who  seems 
in  every  way  capable  of  carrying  on  his  father's 
work.  M.  Zeballos  is  credited  with  being  the 
fount  of  inspiration  of  the  paper.  The  ex- 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  is  at  the  same  time 
a  literary  man,  a  legal  expert,  and  a  historian. 
His  writings  on  questions  of  law  are  highly 
esteemed  in  Europe.  An  untimely  dispute  with 
Brazil  drove  him  out  of  office,  and  gave  him 
the  leisure  he  is  turning  to  account  now.  M. 
Paz  is  enjoying  a  well-earned  rest  in  Europe, 
but  he  retains  supreme  control  of  the  sheet;  and 
a  gorgeous  palace  that  he  is  building  in  the  best 
part  of  Buenos  Ayres  would  appear  to  point  to 
an  intention  of  returning  to  the  country  before 
long.  If  he  does  I  cannot  help  pitying  him,  for 
he  will  require  nothing  less  than  the  Court  of 
Louis  XIV.,  or  perhaps  of  Xerxes,  to  fill  this 
showy  dwelling.  The  business  quarters  of  the 


196          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Prensa  are  in  the  Avenue  of  May,  and  if  smaller 
in  dimensions,  they  are  no  less  magnificent.  The 
building  is  one  of  the  sights  of  the  city.  How 
shall  I  describe  it?  It  would  fill  a  volume. 
Every  department  of  the  paper  is  lodged  in  a 
way  that  unites  the  most  perfect  of  means  to 
the  end  in  view.  Simplicity  of  background,  a 
scrupulous  cleanliness,  comfort  for  every  worker 
therein,  with  a  highly  specialised  method  that 
gathers  together  all  the  varied  workers  on  the 
staff  to  direct  them  towards  their  final  end  and 
aim,  namely,  promptness  and  accuracy  of  news. 
With  all  this  there  are  outside  services,  such 
as  a  dispensary,  so  complete  it  would  need  a 
specialist  to  catalogue  it,  and  suites  of  apart- 
ments that  are  placed  at  the  disposal  of  per- 
sons whom  the  Prensa  considers  worthy  the 
honour.  I  confess  that  I  thought  less  luxury 
in  this  part  of  the  building  would  have  been 
more  to  the  taste  of  the  poor  distinguished  men 
who  are  lodged  there,  since  a  comparison  with 
their  own  modest  homes  would  be  wholly  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  latter. 

_  The  Nation  is  a  party  organ  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word,  following  the  exalted  traditions  of 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  197 

Bartolome  Mitre.  It  has  been  compared  with 
our  Temps.  My  friend  Antonio  Pinero  exer- 
cises considerable  influence  here  over  the  de- 
scendants of  the  great  statesman.  But  for  the 
quiet  and  invaluable  help  given  by  the  Nation,  all 
of  whose  interests  lay  in  the  opposite  direction,1 
we  should  never  have  succeeded  in  getting  the 
law  establishing  literary  proprietorship  through 
Parliament.  It  is  my  duty  as  well  as  my  pleas- 
ure to  take  this  opportunity  of  offering  my 
grateful  thanks  in  the  quarter  where  they  are 
due. 

The  Diario,  in  its  turn,  deserves  special  men- 
tion on  account  of  its  editor,  M.  Manuel  Lainez, 
senator,  who  has  a  rare  command  of  the  most 
refined  of  Parisian  critical  talent,  the  sting  of 
which  does  not  exclude  mirth.  M.  Lainez  is  one 
of  those  journalists  who  excel  in  detecting  the 
weak  spot  in  men  and  things  and  take  a  delight 
in  driving  home  the  shaft  of  a  caustic  phrase. 
He  dissects  with  ease,  and  disguises  the  depth 
of  his  own  knowledge  under  a  thin  veil  of  irony. 

1  The  Nation  publishes  a  Library  of  translations  of 
the  best  works  in  French  (fifty  per  cent,  of  the  whole), 
English,  Russian,  German,  Italian,  to  say  nothing  of 
Spanish  and  Argentine  works  in  the  original. 


198          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

I  know  of  no  more  charming  talker.  Whether 
or  no  his  wit  has  injured  his  political  prospects 
is  a  point  I  am  not  able  to  decide. 

Then  I  must  mention  the  Argentina,  which 
seemed  to  me  an  honest  news  organ ;  and  finally, 
I  must  not  neglect  the  photographic  papers,  the 
P.  B.  T.  and  the  Caras  y  Carietas,  in  which  the 
spoken  word  gives  place  to  the  picture,  accord- 
ing to  the  formula  lately  invented  amongst  us. 
Both  have  a  large  circulation. 

We  all  remember  the  words  that  Ibsen  has 
placed  in  the  mouth  of  his  "  Enemy  of  the 
People "  about  papers  being  edited  by  their 
readers.  No  doubt  the  gazette,  nowadays,  seeks 
less  to  establish  an  idea  than  to  conform  to  the 
supposed  feelings  of  the  masses  in  whose  hands 
is  the  key  of  success.  Its  educational  influence 
has,  of  course,  been  in  consequence  greatly  re- 
duced; still,  a  remnant  exists.  The  culture, 
slow  but  inevitable,  of  the  masses  must  in  time 
have  a  good  influence  on  the  Press  that  caters 
for  them.  Photography,  when  genuine,  and  the 
cinematograph,  which  vitalises  it,  have  a  real 
educational  value.  The  trouble  is  that  nothing 
is  sacred  to  the  Argentine  photographer.  He 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  199 

is  omnipresent  and  enjoys  the  execrable  privi- 
lege of  being  at  borne  in  all  homes.  You  give  a 
dinner-party  to  friends  or  relations.  With  the 
dessert  there  appear  some  pale  persons,  draped 
in  black,  who  disturb  servants  and  guests  to  set 
up  their  complicated  lenses  on  the  spot  that 
strikes  their  fancy.  Then  comes  the  blinding 
flash  and  a  poisonous  puff  of  smoke,  and  the 
master  of  the  house  hastens  to  thank  the  in- 
truders for  the  outrage.  The  diable  boiteux, 
who  lifted  the  roofs  of  houses,  has  been  sur- 
passed. When  an  unfortunate  Argentine  wants 
to  offer  his  heart  (always  accompanied  by  his 
hand)  to  the  lady  of  his  choice,  let  him  begin 
by  doubly  locking  all  the  doors  and  hermetic- 
ally closing  the  shutters,  if  he  wishes  to  be  safe 
from  intrusion! 

I  alluded  just  now  to  the  voting  of  the  Law 
of  Literary  Property.1     As  may  be  supposed, 
such  an  excellent  Act  was  not  carried  through 
without  long  preparation.     I  could  give  a  list 
of  men  who,  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  worked 
in   favour   of  this  act  of  justice  and  literary 

I 1  regret  to  say  that  Brazil  is  backward  in  this  respect. 
Let  us  hope  she  will  not  let  Russia  get  ahead  of  her! 


200          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

honesty.  From  the  moment  that  Argentine 
statesmen  realised  that  purely  intellectual  la- 
bour had  proprietary  rights  in  the  same  way 
as  every  other  kind,  and  that  to  defraud  its 
owners  of  the  proceeds  was  to  place  themselves 
outside  the  pale  of  civilisation,  they  made  it  a 
point  of  honour  to  yield  to  the  representations 
made  to  them  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Is 
it  not  extraordinary  that  a  law  which  was  dia- 
metrically opposed  to  the  interests  of  persons 
particularly  well  placed  to  defend  them  should 
have  been  voted  unanimously  without  a  single 
protest?  All  honour  to  the  Argentine  Eepublic, 
not  only  for  the  act  itself,  but  for  the  nobility 
with  which  it  was  performed. 

It  would  be  an  affectation  on  my  part  to  pass 
over  in  silence  the  public  which  did  me  the 
honour  to  come  to  listen  to  my  lectures  on  demo- 
cratic evolution  as  it  manifests  itself  in  history 
and  in  contemporary  events.  The  subject  is  not 
wildly  amusing.  It  is,  however,  one  of  those 
that  are  of  surpassing  importance  to-day,  and 
none  can  ignore  it.  Unfortunately,  the  general 
public  cannot  acquire  any  trustworthy  know- 
ledge of  it  by  scrappy  reading  indulged  in 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS  201 

between  the  hours  of  the  day's  work;  and  if  in 
the  tumult  of  party  passion  the  public  are  to 
be  of  any  real  service  to  their  Government  in 
solving  it,  the  problem  calls  for  more  than  a 
hasty  and  summary  judgment  founded  on  in- 
sufficient data.  And  yet  was  it  not  too  much 
to  expect  of  people  who  are  engrossed  all  day  by 
their  own  affairs  to  come  to  listen  to  the  state- 
ments of  a  public  man,  against  whom  there  must 
necessarily  be  some  prejudices  on  a  question  of 
pure  doctrine?  The  majority  of  workers  are 
not  free  of  an  afternoon,  and  the  "  upper  classes," 
even  the  most  cultured — in  Europe,  at  least, — 
are  too  distrustful  of  democratic  movements  in 
general  to  waste  an  hour  on  a  subject  that 
worries  them.  Happily,  the  history  of  Ameri- 
can peoples  has  never  been  embittered  by  race 
hatred  engendered  by  centuries  of  oppression, 
and  revolts  of  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  we 
have  now  seen  the  end.  In  the  North,  as  in 
the  South,  a  formula  frightens  nobody.  So- 
ciety has  been  built  up  on  a  new  idea  embodied 
in  language  that  was  once  the  terror  and  scan- 
dal of  the  Old  World.  When  put  in  practice, 
however,  these  ideas  and  their  verbal  expression 


202          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY. 

have  stood  the  test  of  a  century  of  trial ;  and  the 
"  practical "  men  of  the  new  continent,  while  no 
less  alive  to  social  needs  than  any  others,  are, 
perhaps,  more  ready  than  the  rest  of  us  to  make 
an  experiment  that  can  be  recommended  by  right 
and  by  reason.  There  is  here  neither  middle  class 
nor  aristocracy  in  the  sense  that  we  attach  to 
those  terms  in  the  Old  World.  All  are  workers 
who,  having  reached  the  top  rung  of  the  ladder, 
are  ready  to  hold  it  steady  for  other  feet  to 
climb,  rather  than  to  overturn  it  and  retard  the 
advance  of  those  behind. 

Thus,  beside  the  small  aristocracy  formed  of 
the  last  vestiges  of  the  original  Spanish  colony, 
I  had  the  pleasure  and  honour  of  finding  a  large 
public  of  European  culture  and  wide  intelligence, 
eager  to  hear  what  any  European  might  have  to 
say  about  an  idea  whose  course  he  was  honestly 
seeking  to  trace,  whether  bearing  on  the  political 
and  social  experiences  of  Europe  or  on  the  more 
or  less  rational  experiments  of  which  their  own 
land  is  the  theatre.  Their  unbiassed  criticism 
and  independent  opinions  are  all  one  could  hope 
to  find  in  an  audience  one  is  trying  to  influence. 
The  very  best  public  possible,  prepared  to  sur- 


ARGENTINE  POLITICS.  203 

render  or  resist  according  to  the  intrinsic  value 
of  the  arguments  presented.  The  element  of 
resistance  came,  perhaps,  from  the  feminine  sec- 
tion, slightly  actuated  by  snobbishness,  and 
either  holding  itself  aloof  by  way  of  protest 
against  the  possible  utterance  of  ideas  too  bold 
to  be  acceptable,  or  attending  the  lectures  in 
order  to  get  some  understanding  of  the  subject 
so  as  to  discuss  it  afterwards. 

As  regards  language,  there  was  no  difficulty. 
Every  one  here  understands  French,  reading  and 
speaking  it  like  the  speaker  himself,  and  show- 
ing by  their  gestures  that  no  shade  of  meaning 
was  lost  on  them.  What  better  could  one  wish? 
By  the  grace  of  winged  words  the  mind  of  France 
has  flown  across  the  ocean,  and  we  may  rejoice 
in  the  fact  and  found  great  hopes  for  the  fu- 
ture on  it.  It  is  therefore  with  the  greatest 
pleasure  that  I  offer  my  heartfelt  gratitude  to 
this  admirable  audience  for  their  constant  kind- 
liness and  for  the  encouragement  that  I  found  in 
their  remarkable  idealism  and  determination. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PAMPAS  LIFE 

VERY  capital  is  a  world  in  itself 
— a  world  in  which  national  and 
foreign  elements  blend;  but  to 
understand  the  life  of  a  nation 
one  must  go  out  into  the  country.  A  vast  terri- 
tory, ten  times  the  size  of  France,  extending 
from  Patagonia  to  Paraguay  and  Bolivia,  will 
naturally  offer  the  greatest  diversity  of  soil  and 
climate,  representing  differing  conditions  of 
labour  as  well  as  of  customs  and  sometimes  of 
morals.  Our  ancient  Europe  can  in  the  same 
way  show  ethnical  groups  with  sufficiently 
marked  features  (such  as  in  our  French  pro- 
vinces) which  a  long  history  has  not  been  able 
to  destroy  or  even  to  modify. 

It  is  quite  another  matter  when,  on  a  conti- 
nent with  no  history  at  all,  you  get  men  of 
every  origin  spread  over  it,  brought  thither  by 

204 


PAMPAS  LIFE  205 

a  community  of  interest  and  in  the  hope  of  cul- 
tivating the  soil  by  their  labour.  I  have  already 
said  what  racial  characteristics  subsist.  The 
colonist  will,  of  course,  at  first  do  all  he  can 
to  remain  what  the  land  of  his  birth  has  made 
him ;  the  first  evidence  of  this  is  his  tendency  to 
fall  into  groups  and  form  national  colonies. 
But  the  land  of  his  adoption  will  in  time  surely 
force  upon  him  the  inevitable  conditions  of  a 
new  mode  of  life,  the  very  necessity  of  adapting 
himself  to  changed  conditions  making  of  him  a 
new  creature,  to  be  later  definitely  moulded  by 
success. 

The  Pampas  are  not  the  Argentine.  They 
form,  however,  so  predominant  a  part  that  they 
have  shaped  the  man  and  the  race  by  imposing 
on  them  their  organisation  of  agricultural  la- 
bour and  the  development  of  their  natural  re- 
sources. Whilst  manufactures  are  still  in  a 
rudimentary  state  and  are  likely  to  remain  so 
for  a  long  time  to  come  owing  to  the  lack  of 
coal,  the  Pampas  from  the  Andes  to  the  ocean 
offer  an  immense  plain  of  the  same  alluvial  soil 
from  end  to  end,  ready  to  respond  in  the  same 
degree  to  the  same  effort  of  stock-raising  or 


206          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

agriculture.  An  identical  stretch  of  unbroken 
ground,  with  identical  surface,  identical  pools 
of  subterranean  water,  no  special  features  to 
call  for  other  than  the  unchanging  life  of  the 
Campo. 

Naturally,  the  first  experiments  were  made  in 
the  most  rudimentary  fashion  on  the  half-wild 
herd^of  cattle  that  could  not  be  improved  unless 
the  European  market  were  thrown  open.  As 
soon  as  this  outlet  was  assured  the  whole  effort 
of  skill  and  money  was  directed  towards  the 
improvement  of  stock,  and  the  progress  made 
in  a  few  years  of  work  far  exceeded  the  bright- 
est hopes  of  those  early  days.  And  as  at  the 
-  same  time  a  powerful  impetus  was  given  to 
Pampas  from  one  end  to  the 


other  of  their  vast  extent  immediately  took  on 
a  dual  aspect  ij^attle..  lawns  (herds  grazing  on 
natural  or  artificial  pastures),  and  acres  -of  grain 
(wheat,  oats,  maize,  and  flax)  —  this  is  the  only 
picture  that  the  Pampas  offer  or  ever  can  offer 
to  the  traveller.  The  system  of  cattle-breeding, 
primitive  in  the  extreme  at  a  distance  from  rail- 
roads, improves  in  proportion  as  the  line  draws 
nearer;  wherever  the  iron  road  passes  there  is 


PAMPAS  LIFE  207 

an     immediate    development    of    land    under 
cultivation. 

All  this  goes  to  make  up  a  man  of  the  Campo 
—the  estanciero,  colonist,  peon,  gaucho,  or  what- 
ever other  name  he  may  be  called.  Certain  con- 
ditions of  living  and  working  are  forced  upon 
him  from  which  there  is  no  escape.  Whether 
landed  proprietor,  farmer,  servant,  or  agricul- 
tural labourer,  the  vastness  of  the  plain  which 
opens  in  front  of  him,  the  distance  between  in- 
habited dwellings,  the  roughness  of  the  roads, 
leave  him  no  other  means  of  communication  but 
the  horse,  which  abounds  everywhere  and  can 
be  unceremoniously  borrowed  on  occasion.  The 
man  of  the  Campo  is  a  horseman.  He  is  cer- 
tainly not  an  elegant  horseman,  whose  riding 
would  be  appreciated  at  the  Saumur  Cavalry 
School.  No  curb ;  only  a  plain  bit  is  used,  whose 
first  effect  is  to  bring  down  the  animal's  head 
and  throw  him  out  of  balance,  whilst  his  rider, 
to  remedy  this  defect,  raises  his  hands  as  high 
as  his  head.  To  the  unsightliness  of  this  picture 
is  added  an  unstable  seat.  As  very  often  hap- 
pens in  similar  circumstances,  instinct  and 
determination  more  or  less  making  up  for  all 


208          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

mistakes,  the  rider  manages  approximately  to 
keep  on  his  beast's  back,  thanks  partly  ^P  the 
fact  that  the  horse  is  rarely  required  to  go  at 
more  than  a  moderate  pace  over  level  ground.  The 
hoof  never  by  any  chance  can  strike  on  a  stone, 
though  it  may  be  caught  in  a  hole;  the  active 
little  Creole  horse  excels  in  avoiding  this  danger. 
One  can  ask  no  more  of  him.  (I  shall  have 
something  to  say  later  of  the  way  wild  horses 
are  broken  in.) 

On  his  enormous  saddle  of  sheepskin,  the  peon 
or  gaucho,  his  hat  pulled  well  down  over  his 
eyes,  his  shoulders  draped  in  the  folds  of  the 
poncho, — a  blanket  with  a  hole  in  it  for  the  head 
to  pass  through, — is  encumbered  with  a  whip 
whose  handle  serves  on  occasion  as  a  mallet,  and 
a  lasso,  with  or  without  metal  balls,  coiled  be- 
hind his  saddle.  He  makes  a  picturesque  enough 
figure  in  the  monotonous  expanse  of  earth  and 
sky,  where  rancho  or  tree,  beast  or  man,  stand 
out  in  high  relief  against  a  background  of  glaring 
light.  Without  sign  or  syllable,  his  eyes  fixed 
on  the  empty  horizon,  the  man  passes  through 
the  silence  of  infinite  solitude,  rising  like  a  ghost 
from  the  nothingness  of  the  horizon  at  one  point 


PAMPAS  LIFE  209 

to  sink  again  into  nothingness  at  another.  When 
riding  in  a  troop,  they  talk  together  in  low  tones. 
There  are  none  of  those  outbursts  of  fun  that 
you  might  expect  in  a  land  of  sunshine.  It  is 
the  gravity  natural  to  men  brought  face  to  face 
with  Nature  in  the  pitiless  light  of  sky  and  earth 
where  no  fold  or  break  in  the  surface  arrests 
the  glance  or  fixes  the  attention. 

Still,  there  are  those  gigantic  herds  of  horned 
cattle  or  horses  which  fill  an  appreciable  portion 
of  the  melancholy  plain — "  green  in  winter,  yel- 
low in  summer."  I  say  nothing  of  the  great 
flocks  of  sheep  because  there  were  none  in  the 
districts  which  I  visited.  When  you  talk  of  a 
herd  of  ten  thousand  cows,  you  make  some  im- 
pression on  even  a  big  farmer  of  the  Charolais. 
Well,  I  can  assure  you  that  out  in  the  Pampas 
ten  thousand  head_j3f_£attle  is  a  small  affair. 
You  see  a  dark  shadow  that  rises  on  the  hori- 
zon that  might  be  either  a  village  or  a  group  of 
haycocks,  until  the  vague  shifting  of  the  mass 
suggests  to  your  mind  the  idea  of  some  form 
of  life.  The  lines  show  clearer,  groups  break  off 
and  stand  out,  pointed  horns  appear,  and  at 
last  you  find  you  are  watching  the  tranquil  pas- 
14 


210          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

sage  of  a  monstrous  herd,  whose  outlines  are 
stencilled  in  black  upon  the  whiteness  of  the 
sky-line  like  the  Chinese  shadow  pictures  I  saw 
on  one  occasion  at  the  Chat  Noir  (in  Mont- 
martre)  when  the  flocks  of  the  patriarchs  were 
flung  upon  the  sheet.  So  distinct  are  the  shapes 
here  that  you  lose  the  sense  of  distance  and  are 
astonished  at  the  harmony  of  nonchalant  im- 
pulse, as  irresistible  as  slow,  which  can  thus  set 
in  movement  this  huge  living  mass  and  make 
it  pass  before  us  like  a  vision  of  Fate.  The 
dream  fantasy  is  the  more  striking  because  it 
changes  so  rapidly.  Withdraw  your  eyes  a  mo- 
ment from  the  picture,  and  it  is  entirely  altered. 
The  heavy  mass  of  migrating  cattle  seems  now 
to  have  taken  root  at  the  opposite  extremity 
of  the  horizon,  whilst  in  the  depths  of  the  lumin- 
ous distance  shadowy  patches  of  haze  more  or 
less  distinct  betoken  further  living  bodies,  some 
stationary,  some  in  motion.  These  are  mirages 
of  the  Pampas  of  which  none  takes  any  heed; 
but  upon  me  they  made  a  powerful  impression, 
for  I  saw  in  them  the  whole  tragedy  of  this 
land,  from  the  tuft  of  grass  on  which  the  eyes 
of  the  beast  first  saw  the  light  down  to  the 


PAMPAS  LIFE  211 

last  step  of  that  fateful  journey  which  ends  at 
the  slide  of  the  slaughter-house. 

The  rapid  travelling  of  the  motor-car  mul- 
tiplies one's  point  of  view.  The  vast  estates  on 
the  Pampas,  which  run  from  two  to  a  hundred 
square  miles  in  extent,  are  further  divided  into 
large  sections  bounded  by  wire  fencing  to  limit 
the  wandering  of  the  herds.  The  roads  are 
marked  out  by  a  double  row  of  wire.  What 
dust  and  what  mud  may  be  found  thereon,  ac- 
cording to  weather  conditions,  may  be  imagined, 
since  there  is  not  the  smallest  pebble  to  be  found 
there.  Yet  vehicles  do,  it  appears  venture  along 
these  paths,  and  even  arrive  at  their  destination. 
You  may  also  meet  flocks  of  sheep  and  oxen  on 
them,  and  families  of  pigs  engaged  in  breakfast- 
ing on  a  sheep  that  has  been  relieved  of  its 
skin.  In  less  than  an  hour  its  bones,  picked 
clean,  are  scattered  along  the  way,  where  in 
process  of  time  they  will  contribute  precious 
phosphates  to  the  soil.  Naturally,  on  such  a 
"  road,"  the  automobile  does  not  yearn  to  travel ; 
rather  does  it  prefer  the  green  smoothness  of 
the  immense  prairie.  Here  there  are  no  police 
regulations  to  annoy  the  motorist.  No  other 


212          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

law  but  your  own  fancy  and  a  certain  thought 
for  the  savoury  lunch  that  is  awaiting  you  at 
the  next  estancia.  When  you  reach  it  you  will 
discover  that  the  monstrous  herds  on  the  hori- 
zon were  merely  these  gentle  creatures,  placid 
in  their  happy  ignorance  of  the  fell  designs  that 
are  the  hidden  causes  of  man's  kindness  to  them. 
Do  we  astonish  them?  Or  are  they  wholly  in- 
different? Their  eyes  are  fixed  on  our  panting 
machines  as  ours  are  on  the  grazing  beasts,  and 
not  a  spark  is  struck  by  the  meeting  of  the  two 
intelligences,  the  one  so  calmly  definite  and  the 
other  too  soon  checked  in  its  effort  to  under- 
stand. Obedient  to  the  rebenque  (whip)  of  the 
peon,  the  herd,  which  in  motion  looks  so  threat- 
ening, allows  itself  to  be  stopped  or  led  by  the 
cries  and  rapid  movements  of  the  horsemen  go- 
ing at  a  hand-gallop.  The  sight  of  any  object 
that  waves  in  the  wind  (whether  coat  or  poncho) 
is  equally  effectual. 

If  one  expects  the  cows,  which  are  penned  for 
milking  (three  quarts  a  day  as  an  average),  the 
only  apparent  relations  between  man  and  beast 
consist  in  the  easy  use  of  this  instrument  of 
terror.  Nothing  is  done  for  the  flock  except  to 


PAMPAS  LIFE  213 

provide  the  mill  which  automatically  feeds  the 
water-troughs,  and  to  see  to  the  safe  arrival  of 
the  bulls  intended  to  improve  the  breed,  and  to 
select  those  from  the  herd  destined  for  the  freez- 
ing machines;  for  all  their  other  needs  Provi- 
dence is  expected  to  provide — quite  a  different 
regime  from  that  prevailing  in  our  French  stock- 
farms.  Of  shelter  against  wind  or  sun  there  is 
none.  The  grass  is  there  when  the  drought  has 
not  burnt  it  up,  also  an  ugly  thistle  which  no 
one  troubles  to  pull  up  and  which  sometimes 
overruns  the  pasture.  Of  Nature's  scourges,  the 
drought  is  the  most  to  be  feared,  for  it  falls 
with  fearful  suddenness  on  great  stretches  of 
the  Campo.  In  the  absence  of  rain,  neither  turf 
nor  forage  nor  harvest  can  be  looked  for;  for 
the  cattle,  death  is  certain.  Winter  in  any  case 
is  a  hard  season  for  them.  Their  coats  lose 
their  gloss,  their  flanks  fall  in,  and  their  pointed 
bones  witness  to  their  sufferings,  which  the  icy 
breath  of  the  pampero  does  nothing  to  assuage. 
With  the  spring  comes  the  hope  of  rain.  But 
if  this  hope  is  betrayed,  nothing  can  save  innu- 
merable herds  from  starvation  and  death.  For- 
age is  always  stored  for  the  more  precious  of 


214          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  stock,  but  to  feed  the  herd  is  out  of  the 
question.  The  Pampas  then  become  one  vast 
cemetery  where  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dead 
cattle  are  lying  in  heaps  beyond  all  possibility 
of  burial.  It  is  the  custom  to  leave  the  body 
of  the  beast  that  dies  by  the  way  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  wind  and  the  sun,  the  rain  and 
the  earth,  into  whose  wide-open  pores  the  re- 
mains are  little  by  little  absorbed.  The  birds  of 
prey  and  dogs  are  valuable  assistants  but  wholly 
insufficient.  One  of  my  friends  told  me  that  it 
was  by  no  means  uncommon  for  the  dogs  to  re- 
turn to  the  farm  from  the  Campo  bearing  a 
horrible  smell  about  them.  For  my  part,  if  I 
was  often  revolted  by  the  spectacle  of  putrefy- 
ing carcasses  lying  about  the  Pampas  and  seen 
either  on  my  walks  or  from  the  railway-train 
— some  even  lying  festering  in  pools  close  to 
dwelling-houses — I  cannot  say  that  my  olfactory 
nerves  were  ever  troubled.  I  occasionally  spoke 
of  the  danger  of  poisonous  fly-bites,  but  I  got 
only  vague  replies. 

In  my  personal  experience,  whenever  I  met 
something  disagreeable  on  my  walks  about  the 
Pampas,  the  carcass  was  invariably  completely 


PAMPAS  LIFE  215 

mummified,  the  skin  being  so  thoroughly  tanned 
that  the  object  might  have  been  carefully 
prepared  for  a  museum  of  comparative  ana- 
tomy. But  when  death  was  recent,  and  the 
summer  season  had  set  in,  with  its  attendant 
flies,  I  should  certainly  avoid  the  neighbour- 
hood. 

It  will  surprise  no  one  to  hear  that  I  took 
the  liberty  of  calling  the  attention  of  two  or 
three  statesmen  to  the  dangers  of  this  unfortu- 
nate custom  and  the  detestable  impression  it  is 
bound  to  make  on  travellers.  The  reply  invari- 
ably was  that  the  Argentine  was  suffering,  and 
would,  no  doubt,  continue  to  suffer  for  some  time 
to  come,  from  a  lack  of  hands  and  that  the 
thousands  of  animals  which  under  normal  con- 
ditions perished  in  the  Pampas  could  never  find 
grave-diggers.  When,  therefore,  a  dry  season 
killed  off  as  many  as  ten  thousand  sheep  on  a 
single  ranch,  there  was  no  alternative  but  to 
bow  to  the  inevitable. 

We  see  that  cattle-rearing  in  the  Argentine 
has  its  ups  and  downs.  At  every  turn  Nature 
intervenes  with  its  elements  of  success  or  dis- 
aster. Man's  role  is  to  furnish  a  minimum  of 


216          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

labour,  and  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  he  is 
compelled  to  reckon  on  quantity  for  his  modi- 
cum of  success;  but  the  fact  does  not  prevent 
his  successful  efforts  to  improve  the  quality.  As 
I  have  already  said,  he  will  give  any  prize  to 
secure  a  fine  strain.  It  is  naturally  from  Eng- 
land that  he  gets  his  stock  for  breeding,  since 
the  customers  for  his  meat  are  chiefly  English. 
On  all  hands  I  was  told  that  the  results  were 
most  satisfactory.  As  regards  their  breed  of 
horses,  the  result  is  manifest.  But  as  for  the 
cattle,  I  take  the  liberty  of  disagreeing  with 
those  who  declare  that  the  Argentine  can  send 
to  our  slaughter-houses  at  La  Villette  meat  as 
fine  as  our  own  at  half  its  price.  If,  however, 
I  am  firmly  convinced  that  our  palate  would 
not  readily  be  satisfied  with  the  frozen  meat 
that  seems  to  please  the  English,  I  am  quite 
aware  that  there  is  a  distinction  to  be  drawoi 
between  the  choice  beasts,  generally  magnificent, 
that  make  such  a  show  at  exhibitions  and  the 
common  run  of  the  average  flock,  amongst  which 
truth  compels  me  to  admit  there  are  some  very 
indifferent  animals.  It  will  require  a  long  time 
and  a  change  of  system  on  the  cattle-rearing 


PAMPAS  LIFE  217 

farms  for  the  Argentine  ever  to  equal  the  fine 
products  of  our  French  breeders.  It  cannot  be 
otherwise  as  long  as  the  young  animal,  bred 
somewhat  at  haphazard  and  born  on  the  open 
camp  between  the  corpses  of  some  of  its  rela- 
tions, is  left  to  grow  up  "as"  best  it  can,  exposed 
to  every  change  of  temperature.  Everywhere  I 
came  upon  young  calves  abandoned  by  their 
mothers  as  soon  as  born,  and  only  sought  out 
when  the  time  for  feeding  came  round;  it  can- 
not be  said  that  the  stock  would  bear  comparison 
with  the  average  produce  of  a  Norman  or  Charo- 
lais  byre.  Not  all  the  quality  of  its  mother's 
milk  will  suffice  to  make  up  for  the  ground  lost 
by  neglect. 

As  I  have  said,  the  troops  of  horses  seem  to 
have  lost  the  least.  I  speak  less  of  their  appear- 
ance than  of  their  action,  which  often  seemed 
to  me  remarkable.  You  cannot  imagine  the 
pleasure  it  is  to  glide  swiftly  across  the  Pampas 
in  a  motor-car  with  a  troop  of  young  horses  on 
either  side  of  you,  neighing  and  galloping  to 
keep  up  with  the  machine.  But  do  not,  pray, 
call  them  "  wild  horses." 

Tradition  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  I 


218          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

believe  there  are  no  wild  horses  in  the  Argen- 
tine. There  are  horses,  and  there  are  horsemen 
who  treat  them  brutally  under  the  pretext  of 
breaking  them  in.  This  is  a  survival  of  ancient 
times  which  not  even  the  universality  of  the 
horse  in  civilised  countries  can  destroy.  Any 
English  squire  will  get  more  out  of  a  young 
horse  by  quiet  skill  and  kindness  than  can  ever 
be  obtained  by  the  useless  and  cruel  lasso,  to 
which  I  shall  return  later. 

I  have  shown  you  the  Pampas  alive  with  the 
swarms  of  their  new  civilisation.  We  are  far 
enough  from  the  romantic  descriptions  so  dear 
to  story-tellers.  We  all  know  now  that  the 
redskin  of  North  America  bears  no  resemblance 
to  the  portraits  painted  of  him  by  Chateaubriand 
or  Fenimore  Cooper.  The  Pampas,  in  full  pro- 
cess of  evolution,  are  getting  more  human  and 
losing  their  distinctive  features.  They  were 
once  as  bare,  to  quote  the  joke  of  a  poet,  now 
a  member  of  the  Academic  Franchise,  "as  the 
speech  of  an  academician  " ;  man  has  undertaken 
to  raise  up  orchards,  groves,  and  even  forests. 
Once  they  were  the  refuge  of  more  or  less  in- 
nocent beasts.  The  son  of  Adain,  by  the  mere 


PAMPAS  LIFE  219 

fact  of  his  presence,  treads  out  all  life  tliat  can- 
not be  made  of  use  to  himself. 

I  said  that  the  omltu  was  the  only  tree  that 
flourished  in  the  Pampas,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  locusts  devour  every  other  vegetable 
product,  including  clover,  crops,  and  trees  of  all 
sorts.  The  damage  caused  by  these  insects, 
which  descend  in  clouds  and  destroy  in  a  mo- 
ment the  harvest,  is  only  too  well  known  by 
our  Algerian  colonists.  Wherever  the  cloud  de- 
scends vegetation  vanishes.  In  a  few  hours 
every  leaf  is  gone  from  the  tree,  and  only  the 
kernel,  clean  and  dry,  is  left  on  the  branch  as 
a  mute  witness  of  the  irreparable  disaster.  I 
did  not  see  the  locusts,  but  I  was  shown  the 
result  of  their  work,  most  conscientiously  car- 
ried out.  Men  who  have  put  long  months  of 
toil  into  their  land  see,  with  impotent  rage,  all 
the  fruit  of  their  toil  swept  off  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye.  The  Government  lays  out  some  mil- 
lions yearly  to  assuage  in  some  sort  the  mischief 
done.  But  the  only  remedy  applied  up  to  the 
present  consists  in  making  such  a  din  on  the 
approach  of  the  baneful  host  as  to  induce  them 
to  go  on  farther  and  land  at  a  neighbour's.  As 


220          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

altruism,  this  course  is  not  above  reproach. 
Another  way  is  to  dig  ditches  in  which  to  bury 
them  alive,  but  this  is  mere  child's  play.  If 
you  inquire  the  origin  of  the  scourge  you  will 
get  the  sulky  reply  that  the  pest  comes  from 
Chaco,  and  that  some  men  have  travelled  thither 
to  verify  the  statement,  but  the  country  proving 
impenetrable,  the  project  has  for  the  moment 
been  abandoned.  I  hasten  to  place  these  insuf- 
ficient data  before  the  European  public. 

Alone  victorious  over  the  locusts  by  the  re- 
pugnance it  inspires,  and  over  man  by  its  glori- 
ous uselessness,  the  ombu  here  and  there  spreads 
its  triumphant  arms  near  some  ranch;  occa- 
sionally, on  the  pasturage  of  the  Campo,  it  may 
be  seen  extending  its  shelter  to  some  quadruped 
that  shuns  the  rays  of  the  sun.  Around  his 
estancia  the  farmer  plants  his  orchard  and  his 
ornamental  thicket,  which  will  flourish  or  not  at 
the  will  of  the  insects.  After  the  passage  of  the 
destructive  horde  it  requires  at  least  two  years 
for  the  country  to  recover.  The  eucalyptus, 
owing  to  its  rapid  growth,  gives  very  good  re- 
sults, but  the  favourite  tree  in  the  Pampas  is 
the  paraiso — the  Tree  of  Paradise — which  is  ad- 


PAMPAS  LIFE  221 

mirable  rather  for  its  flower  than  its  form,  and 
withstands  to  some  extent  the  locust,  through 
sheer  force  of  resistance.  Occasionally  one 
comes  upon  a  small  wood,  in  which  the  ornevo 
— the  cardinal — sings  and  the  dove  coos. 

For  the  Campo  has  a  whole  population  of  run- 
ning or  flying  creatures,  whose  principal  virtue 
is  that  of  being  satisfied  with  little  in  the  shape 
of  a  shelter.  The  gardens  and  parks  of  the 
estancias  provide  a  natural  asylum  for  a  world 
of  winged  songsters,  in  whom  man,  softened  by 
isolation,  has  not  yet  inspired  terror. 

But  the  Pampas  in  their  nudity  are  not  with- 
out signs  of  life.  There  is  the  guanaco,  smaller 
than  the  llama,  larger  than  the  stork,  which  has 
already  retreated  far  from  Buenos  Ayres.  Tb£L 
grey  ostrich,  formerly  abundant,  has  been  tied-' 
mated  by  the  lasso  of  the  gaucho,  who,  at  the 
risk  of  getting  a  kick  that  may  rip  him  open, 
attacks  the  beast  that  struggles  wildly  in  the 
bonds  of  the  cruel  rope,  drags  out  his  hand- 
somest feathers,  and  then  lets  him  go.  The 
really  "  wild "  ostrich  has  disappeared  from 
the  Pampas.  Numbers  may  be  seen  from  the 
window  of  the  train,  but  they  are  all  con- 


222  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

fined  in  fenced  parks,  and  are  really  in 
captivity. 

I  cannot  be  expected  to  give  a  list  of  all  the 
creatures  that  swarm  on  or  under  the  soil  of 
the  Campo.  There  is  nothing  to  be  said  about 
the  pr^irie-dpg,  which  has  been  systematically 
destroyed  on  account  of  the  damage  it  does.  I 
must  mention  the  tatou,  a  small  creature  with 
a  pointed  muzzle,  something  between  a  lizard  and 
a  tortoise,  and  with  the  shell  of  the  latter.  It 
burrows  into  the  ground,  as  certain  of  our  Euro- 
pean species  do.  The  gaucJio  considers  its  flesh 
excellent,  declaring  that  it  tastes  like  pork.  Per- 
haps the  surest  way  of  getting  the  taste  of  pork 
is  to  address  oneself  to  the  pig  himself,  here 
popularly  known  as  the  "  Creole  pig,"  a  lovable 
little  black  beast  that  plays  with  the  children 
in  tiny  muddy  pools  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  ranches. 

Passing  by  theJiar.e.  (imported  from  Europe), 
the  small  partridge,  and  the  martinette  (Una- 
mou),  to  which  I  shall  return  presently,  I  may 
mention  the  plover  (abundant)  and  the  birds 
of  carrion,  which  settle  all  disputes  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  ground  according  to  the  dictates 


PAMPAS  LIFE  223 

of  a  boundless  appetite,  and  the  small  owl,  so 
tame  that  it  rises  every  few  yards  with  a  cheer- 
ful cry  to  come  down  again  a  few  yards  farther 
on,  following  all  your  movements  with  a  ques- 
tioning eye.  At  the  mouth  of  its  burrow,  or  on 
the  stake  that  marks  the  boundary  of  the  ranch, 
its  pretty  form  is  a  feature  in  the  landscape. 
Finally,  I  must  not  forget  the  ornevo,  to  be 
found  near  the  estancias  and  in  the  woods,  a 
charming,  tame  little  bird,  that  chatters  all  the 
time  like  a  good  many  people,  and  builds  a  mud 
nest  in  the  branches,  in  the  shape  of  an  oven 
divided  into  two  apartments,  whose  tiny  door 
opens  always  to  the  north,  whence  comes  the 
warmth.  If  you  lose  yourself  in  the  forest  you 
need  no  compass  but  this.  The  gauchos  hold 
the  bird  in  pious  respect.  Legend  has  it  that 
he  never  works  on  Sundays  at  his  nest.  Here 
is  one  who  wants  no  legislation  for  a  repos  Tieb- 
domadaire  any  more  than  he  does  for  the  regula- 
tion of  the  liquor  sale.  Oh,  the  superiority  of 
our  "  inferior  brethren  " ! 

I  heard  a  good  deal  about  the  great  lakes  in 
which  thousands  of  black-necked  swans  and  rose- 
pink  flamingoes  may  be  seen  at  play.  I  was  never 


224          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

able  to  visit  these  fascinating  birds.  To  make 
up  for  this  M.  Onelli  presented  me  with  two 
handsome  black- throated  swans,  which,  how- 
ever, were  not  able  to  stand  the  climate  of 
Normandy. 

Having  thus  sketched  the  principal  features, 
it  remains  to  fill  in  the  picture  of  the  ranch 
and  estancia.  I  have  shown  you  the  primitive 
cabin  of  the  Kobinson  Crusoe  of  the  Campo.  I 
have  drawn  a  picture  of  the  colonist  and  the 
gaucho;  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  back  to  him 
again.  I  have  shown  the  diverse  elements  of 
his  existence.  The  railway  has  not  changed 
anything  in  it  except  by  abolishing  the  inter- 
minable rides  of  earlier  days  and  the  tiresome 
monotony  of  convoying  freight  waggons  to  the 
town  markets.  The  railway,  moreover,  brings 
within  reach  of  the  ranch  the  conveniences  of 
modern  furniture. 

In  the  huts  of  the  half-castes,  near  Tucuman, 
the  only  piece  of  furniture  I  saw  was  a  pair 
of  trestles,  on  which  was  laid  the  mat  which 
served  as  seat,  bed,  or  table — the  kitchen  being 
always  outside.  In  the  Pampas,  dwellings  that 
look  modest,  and  even  less  than  modest,  gen- 


PAMPAS  LIFE  225 

erally  boast  an  easy-chair,  a  chest  of  drawers, 
with  a  clock,  a  sewing-machine,  and  gramo- 
phone, which,  when  fortune  comes,  is  completed 
by  a  piano.  The  gramophone  is  the  theatre  of 
the  Pampas.  It  brings  with  it  orchestra,  song, 
words,  and  the  whole  equipment  of  "  art "  suited 
to  the  aesthetic  sense  of  its  hearers.  Thus  on 
all  sides  dreadful  nasal  sounds  twang  out,  to 
the  great  joy  of  the  youth  of  the  colony. 

The  morals  of  the  Campo  are  what  the  con- 
ditions of  life  there  have  made  them.  Men  who 
are  crowded  together  in  large  cities  are  exposed 
to  many  temptations.  When  too  far  removed 
from  the  restraint  of  public  opinion,  the  danger 
is  no  less  great.  In  all  circumstances  a  witness 
acts  as  a  curb.  In  the  Pampas  as  it  used  to 
be,  the  witness,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  became 
an  accomplice.  Between  the  menace  of  a  dis- 
tant and  vague  police  force  and  the  ever-present 
fear  of  the  Indian,  the  gaucJw  became  a  soldier 
of  fortune,  prepared  for  any  bold  stroke.  With 
his  dagger  in  his  belt,  his  gun  on  his  shoulder, 
and  the  lasso  on  his  saddle-bow,  he  rode  over 
the  eternal  prairie  in  search  of  adventures,  and 

ready  at  any  moment  for  the  drama  that  might 
is 


226          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

be  awaiting  him.  To  his  other  qualities  must 
be  added  a  generous  hospitality,  that  dispensed 
to  all  comers  his  more  or  less  well-gotten  goods ; 
he  had  in  him  the  material  for  an  admirable 
leader  in  revolutionary  times.  I  saw  no  revo- 
lutions, and  I  hope  the  Argentine  has  finished 
with  them  for  ever;  but  the  periodic  explosions 
that  have  taken  place  there  are  not  so  ancient 
but  that  an  echo  of  them  reached  my  ear.  I 
shall  leave  out  of  the  question,  of  course,  all 
more  remote  circumstances  that  might  serve  at 
hazard  to  put  a  body  of  adventurers  in  motion. 
You  were  on  the  side  of  General  X  or  General 
Z,  according  to  the  hopes  of  the  party;  but,  in 
reality,  that  had  little  to  do  with  it.  When 
the  signal  was  once  given  a  military  force  had 
to  be  organised,  and  the  means  adopted  were 
admirably  simple.  Any  weapon  that  could  be 
of  use  in  battle  was  picked  up,  and  a  band 
would  present  themselves  at  the  door  of  an 
estancia. 

"  We  are  Jtor  General  X.  All  the  peons  here 
must  follow  us.  To  arms !  To  horse !  " 

And  the  order  would  be  obeyed ;  otherwise,  the 
estancia  and  its  herds  would  suffer.  With  such 


PAMPAS  LIFE  227 

a  system  of  recruiting,  troops  were  quickly  col- 
lected, and  a  few  such  visits  would  suffice  to 
bring  together  a  very  respectable  force  of  men. 
My  friend  Biessy,  the  artist,  with  whom  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  making  the  journey,  witnessed 
just  such  a  scene  one  day  at  an  estancia  which 
he  was  visiting.  He  was  chatting  with  the  over- 
seer when  the  man,  hearing  a  suspicious  sound, 
flung  himself  down  and  put  his  ear  to  the 
ground.  A  moment  later  he  rose,  looking 
anxious. 

"  There  are  horsemen  galloping  this  way. 
What  can  have  happened?  "  And  sure  enough, 
a  minute  later,  there  appeared  a  band  of  men 
so  oddly  equipped  that  at  first  they  were  taken 
for  masqueraders.  It  was  carnival  time.  The 
leader,  however,  came  forward  and  called  on 
the  overseer  to  place  all  his  peons  at  the  service 
of  the  revolutionaries.  Biessy  himself  only  es- 
caped by  claiming  the  rights  of  a  French  citizen. 
And  do  not  imagine  that  all  this  was  a  comedy. 
The  dominant  sentiment  in  their  camp  was  by 
no  means  a  respect  for  human  life.  On  both 
sides  these  brave  peons  fought  furiously,  asking 
no  questions  about  the  party  in  whose  cause 


228  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

they  happened  to  be  enrolled.  The  overseer  of 
a  neighbouring  estancia,  who  was  talking  with 
M.  Biessy  when  called  to  parley  with  the  revo- 
lutionaries, was  shot  dead  a  few  hours  later  for 
having  offered  resistance  to  them. 

If  men  are  thus  unceremoniously  enrolled — I 
use  the  present  tense  because  one  never  knows 
what  may  happen — it  may  be  imagined  the 
horses  are  borrowed  still  more  freely.  A  curi- 
ous thing  is  that  when  the  war  is  over,  and 
these  creatures  are  again  at  liberty,  they-  find 
their  way  back  quite  easily  to  their  own  pastures. 

The  overseer  of  one  estancia  told  me  that  the 
last  revolution  had  cost  him  600  horses,  of  which 
400,  that  had  been  taken  to  a  distance  of  from 
200  to  300  kilometres,  returned  of  their  own 
accord.  How  they  contrive  to  steer  their  course 
over  the  Pampas,  with  their  inextricable  tangle 
of  wire  fencing,  I  do  not  undertake  to  explain. 
When  I  inquired  of  the  overseer  whether  it  were 
not  possible  to  steal  one  of  his  horses  without 
being  discovered,  he  replied,  "  Oh,  it  is  like  pick- 
ing an  apple  in  Normandy!  It  often  happens 
that  a  traveller  on  a  tired  horse  lassoes  another 
to  continue  his  journey.  But  on  reaching  his 


PAMPAS  LIFE  229 

destination  lie  sets  the  animal  at  liberty,  and 
he  invariably  makes  his  way  back  to  the  herd." 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  time  when  the 
gaucho  would  fell  an  ox  to  obtain  a  steak  for 
lunch.  In  some  of  the  more  remote  districts  it 
is  possible  that  the  custom  still  subsists.  But 
it  is  none  the  less  true  that  a  growing  civilisa- 
tion and  the  railway,  which  is  its  most  effectual 
and  rapid  instrument,  are  changing  the  gaucho, 
together  with  his  surroundings  and  his  sphere  of 
action.  The  gaucho  on  foot  is  very  like  any 
other  man.  His  flowing  necktie  of  brilliant 
colour,  once  the  party  signal,  has  been  toned 
down.  His  poncho,  admirably  adapted  to  the 
climatic  conditions  of  camp  life  in  the  Campo, 
is  now  used  by  the  townsmen,  who  throw  it  over 
their  arm  or  shoulder  according  to  the  varia- 
tions in  the  temperature.  The  sombrero,  like  the 
slashed  breeches  or  high  boots,  is  no  longer 
distinctive.  There  remains  only  the  heavy  stir- 
rup of  romantic  design,  more  or  less  artistically 
ornamented,  but  now  often  replaced  by  a  simple 
ring  of  rope  or  iron.  The  days  of  roystering 
glamour  are  passed.  The  heavy  roller  of  civili- 
sation levels  all  the  elements  of  modern  exist- 


230          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

ence  to  make  way  for  the  utilitarian  but 
insesthetic  triumph  of  uniformity.  Yet  a  little 
longer  and  the  life  of  the  Campo  will  be  nothing 
but  a  memory,  for  with  his  picturesque  dress 
the  type  itself  is  disappearing. 

The  modern  gaucho  has  preserved  from  his 
ancestors  the  slowness  in  speech,  the  reserved 
manner,  and  scrutinising  eye  of  the  man  who 
lives  on  the  defensive.  But  to-day  he  is  thor- 
oughly civilised,  and  can  stroll  down  Florida 
Street,  in  Buenos  Ayres,  without  attracting  any 
attention.  It  is  in  vain  that  the  theatre  seeks 
to  reproduce  the  life  of  the  Campo,  as  I  saw  it 
attempted  at  the  Apollo.  What  can  it  show  us 
beyond  the  eternal  comedy  of  love,  or  the  ab- 
surdities of  the  wife  of  the  gaucho  who  has  too 
suddenly  acquired  a  fortune?  Both  subjects 
belong  to  all  times  and  all  countries,  in  the 
same  way  as  every  dance  and  every  song  are 
common  to  any  assembly  of  young  humanity. 
Long  before  the  gramophone  was  invented  the 
guitar  was  the  joy  of  Spanish  ears  to  the  farthest 
confines  of  the  Pampas.  Between  two  out- 
breaks of  civil  war,  when  men  were  rushing 
madly  to  meet  death,  joyous  songs  and  plaintive 


PAMPAS  LIFE  231 

refrains  alternated  beneath  the  branches  of  the 
onibu,  where  the  youth  of  the  district  met,  and 
the  sudden   dramas  of   the   ranch   made   them 
the  more  eager  to  drink  deep  of  the  pleasure 
they   knew   to   be   fleeting.     They    danced   the 
Pericou  and  the  Tango,  as  they  still  do  to-day; 
but  the  audacious  gestures  in  which  amorous 
Spain  gave  expression  to  the  ardour  of  its  feel- 
ings have  now  passed  into  the  domain  of  his- 
tory.    The  "  Creole  balls,"  where  may  be  seen 
graceful  young  girls   in   soft  white  draperies, 
dancing  in  a  chain  that  resembles  our  Pastour- 
elle,  have  been  reproduced  on  postcards  and  are 
familiar  to  all.     There  are,  there  will  ever  be  in 
the  Pampas — at  least,  I  fondly  hope  so — grace- 
ful young  girls  dressed  in  white  and  destined 
to  rouse  the  love  instinct  which  never  seems  to 
sleep  in  an  Italian  or  Spanish  breast.     But  the 
trouble  we  take  to  reconstruct  on  the  stage,  for 
the  edification  of  travellers  from  Europe,  the 
real  Tango,  in  all  the  antique  effrontery  of  its 
ingeniousness,  proves  that  the  heroic  age,  made 
up  of  the  naif  and  the  barbarous,  is  fast  losing 
its  last  vestiges  of  character  in  the  wilderness 
of  civilised  monotony.     The  Tango  is  disappear- 


232          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

ing  rapidly.  On  the  other  hand,  at  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  in  the  flower  of  my  seventieth  year, 
I  actually  figured  in  the  official  quadrille  of  the 
President  of  the  Republic,  to  the  shame  of  French 
choregraphy.  Alas!  alas! 


CHAPTER  IX 


FARMING  AND  SPORT 

OMAN  civilisation  ended  in  those 
lat if undia  which,  amongst  other 
causes,  are  usually  considered  to 
have  brought  about  the  ruin  of 
Italy.  The  immense  estates  of  the  Argentine 
Campo  were  not  built  up,  however,  by  the  ex- 
propriation of  small  farmers,  as  was  the  case  in 
decadent  Rome.  They  are  simply  the  result  of 
wholesale  seizure  of  land  at  the  expense  of  the 
savages  who  were  incapable  of  utilising  it. 
Without  discussing  the  origin  of  all  landed  prop- 
erty, or  to  what  extent  our  legal  principles 
and  our  practice  agree,  I  simply  note  the  fact 
that  the  conquistadores  and  their  descendants 
set  down  as  res  nullius  whatever  it  suited  them 
to  appropriate. 

The  principle  once  established    (this  is  the 
commencement  of  every  civilisation),  there  re- 

233 


234          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

mained  only  to  fix  the  approximate  extent  of 
land  likely  to  satisfy  the  appetite  of  the  Euro- 
pean newcomer.  Do  you  remember  a  fine  story, 
by  Tolstoy,  of  a  man  who  was  given,  by  I  know 
not  what  tribe  of  the  steppe,  as  much  land  as 
he  could  walk  round  in  a  day?  Once  started, 
the  sole  idea  of  the  poor  wretch  was  continually 
to  enlarge  the  circumference.  It  was  only 
at  the  price  of  a  tremendous  effort  that  he  com- 
pleted the  circle,  falling  dead  at  the  moment  of 
accomplishing  his  journey.  The  first  settlers, 
who  followed  the  Genoese,  took  probably  less 
trouble,  though  their  greed  was  as  great.  But 
as  the  land  depends  for  its  value  on  labour,  the 
result  for  Tolstoy's  hero  and  for  the  conquis- 
tadores  was  not  so  very  different.  Thus,  when 
the  first  ploughshare  turned  the  first  sod,  the 
estate,  whatever  its  proportions,  had  to  bear  some 
relation  to  human  capacity.  The  large  domains 
of  to-day — measuring  from  two  to  a  hundred 
square  miles — have  proceeded  from  still  larger 
ones,  and  gradually,  as  the  much-needed  labour 
comes  forward  to  undertake  the  task,  we  shall 
see  the  further  cutting  up  of  preposterous 
holdings. 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  235 

This  is  inevitable  in  the  near  future,  and  this 
alone  will  render  possible  scientific  farming, 
which  is  highly  necessary  for  the  development 
of  agriculture.  A  farmer  who  knows  nothing 
of  manure  of  any  sort,  who  is  making  his  first 
experiments  in  irrigation,  and  who  burns  his 
flax  straw  for  want  of  knowing  how  to  utilise 
it,  will,  for  a  long  time  to  come,  continue  to 
swamp  the  markets  of  Europe  with  his  grain  and 
his  meat,  but  only  on  condition  that  he  is  satis- 
fied with  small  profits  and  gives  quantity  in 
place  of  quality.  These  are  the  conditions  of 
life  on  the  Campo,  such  as  I  have  tried  to  sketch 
them. 

It  remains  for  me  to  introduce  the  chief  agent 
in   this   huge   movement   of   cattle-rearing   and 
agriculture,  who,  in  his  own  person  and  that  of 
his  overseers,  administers  the  Pampas ;  he  is  the" 
owner  of  the  estancia,  the  estanciero. 

The  word  estancia — since  it  represents  some- 
thing non-existent  with  us — is  not  easy  to  trans- 
late. Let  us  put  it  down  as  the  most  sumptuous 
form  of  primitive  ownership.  I  might  call  it 
the  seat  of  an  agricultural  feudalism  if  the  peon 
were  a  man  to  accept  serfdom — something 


236          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

resembling  a  democratic  principality,  if  the  two 
words  can  be  coupled  together. 

When  we  meet  him  on  the  boulevard,  the 
estanciero,  who  talks  of  his  immeasurable  estate 
and  his  innumerable  herds,  seems  to  us  a  fabu- 
lous creature.  It  is  quite  another  matter  to  see 
him  on  horseback  amidst  his  peons  in  the  Pam- 
pas, which,  in  default  of  the  customary  features 
of  private  property,  appears  in  its  nakedness  to 
be  nobody's  land — that  is  to  say,  everybody's 
land. 

The  contrast  between  the  estanciero's  per- 
sonal refinement  and  the  English  comfort  of  his 
family  abode,  and  the  primitive  rusticity  of  the 
surrounding  country,  suggests  the  inconsist- 
encies of  barbarism  undergoing  the  civilising 
process. 

As  I  have  already  observed,  the  results  ob- 
tained are  due  to  a  progression  of  efforts  in 
which  the  chief,  even  if  assisted  by  an  overseer, 
necessarily  plays  a  large  part.  For  although  it 
is  easy  to  dazzle  the  European  with  fantastic 
figures,  without  sacrificing  the  truth,  it  is  wise 
to  remember  that  success  is  not  automatic,  and 
that  from  the  elements  alone  (to  say  nothing  of 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  237 

locusts)  serious  difficulties  are  to  be  expected. 
M.  Basset,  whose  competence  is  beyond  ques- 
tion, told  me  that,  having  lost  money  in  conduct- 
ing experiments  on  a  large  estate,  he  decided 
to  sell  the  place.  In  the  meantime  land  had 
gone  up  in  value,  and  he  was  able  to  recover 
himself  on  the  sale  of  the  unworked  plots.  "  I 
should  have  made  a  lot  of  money,"  he  concluded, 
"  if  I  had  not  farmed  any  of  my  land."  This 
shows  that  in  the  Argentine,  as  elsewhere,  there 
are  risks  to  be  run.  The  estanciero  takes  these 
risks,  but  if  he  were  content  to  wait  on  chance  to 
enhance  the  value  of  his  land,  he  would  not 
contribute  as  largely  as  he  does  to  the  wealth 
of  the  Eue  de  la  Paix. 

We  are  always  being  told  that  the  word 
dearest  to  Creole  indolence  is  manana  ("  to- 
morrow"), but  the  exigencies  of  economic  suc- 
cess tend  to  modify  customs.  The  Argentine, 
like  the  Yankee,  is  more  and  more  inclined  to 
do  over-night  the  work  that  might  be  put  off 
to  the  morrow.  At  all  events,  absenteeism  is 
unknown  on  the  estancia,  for  this  would  spell 
ruin  at  short  notice.  It  is  true  the  estanciero 
has  the  reputation  of  mortgaging  freely  his 


238          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

estates,  and,  when  a  good  harvest  makes  it  pos- 
sible, of  hastening  to  purchase  more  land  so  as 
to  increase  his  output.  What  can  I  say,  unless 
that  every  economic  error  must  be  paid  for 
sooner  or  later,  and  that  in  spite  of  whatever 
may  remain  of  "  Creole  indolence/7  all  are  forced 
in  the  end  to  seek  their  profits  in  an  improve- 
ment of  the  system  of  cultivation? 

Grand  seigneur  I  called  him — a  grand  seigneur 
on  colonial  soil,  wrhere  his  dwelling  is  a  rustic 
palace  that  is  something  between  a  farmhouse  and 
a  mansion.  Simple  in  structure,  wood  being  the 
principal  element,  it  is  built  on  the  ground-floor, 
colonial  fashion.  The  comforts  of  English  life 
are  reflected  in  the  large  rooms,  and  both  furni- 
ture and  the  domestic  arrangements  are  admir- 
able. Large  and  rich  pieces  of  furniture  belong 
to  the  days  when  difficulties  of  travelling  made 
a  provision  of  the  sort  indispensable.  Large 
bookcases,  filled  with  heavy  volumes,  denote  a 
time  before  the  coming  of  the  railway  to  scatter 
on  the  winds  leaves  from  the  Tree  of  Knowledge. 
Here  is  every  inducement  for  reflection — paint- 
ings, or,  rather,  pictures;  massive  plate,  gold- 
smiths' work  won  as  prizes  in  cattle  shows, 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  239 

whose  medals  fill  large  frames,  to  say  nothing 
of  photographs  of  prize  beasts.  And,  better  than 
all  the  rest,  was  the  hospitality  of  other  times. 
Now  that  every  one  travels  without  ceasing, 
the  ancient  hospitality  has  lost  its  savour.  There 
still  linger  vestiges  of  it  in  those  countries  where 
civilisation  is  not  advanced  enough  to  protect 
the  traveller  from  unpleasant  contingencies. 
Let  me  hasten  to  add  that  amongst  these  one 
need  not  count  the  risk  of  starvation  in  an 
estaneia.  No  doubt  the  abundance  of  cattle 
counts  for  something.  In  any  case,  the  estan- 
ciero  is  admirable  in  this  respect.  I  wish  I 
could  give  unstinted  praise  to  the  upchero,  the 
asado,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken.  But  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  do  that  until  the  Argentino 
has  got  out  of  the  habit  of  handing  the  meat 
to  the  cook  while  it  is  still  warm,  for  this  re- 
quires a  power  of  mastication  which  European 
debility  denies  to  our  jaws. 

All  kitchen-gardens  are  alike,  and  you  cannot 
expect  to  find  the  pleasure-gardens  of  an  estaneia 
laid  out  by  a  Lenotre.  Even  if  that  miracle  had 
been  worked,  what  good  would  it  be  when  the 
locusts  had  passed  over  it?  In  one  estaneia, 


240          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

near  Buenos  Ayres,  considered  the  handsomest 
in  the  Argentine,  which  the  kindness  of  its  owner 
throws  open  to  any  foreign  visitor,  I  beheld  a 
park  of  a  thousand  hectares,  where,  amid  the 
groves  of  tall  trees,  animals  wander,  giving  the 
illusion  of  wildness.  The  grey  ostriches  that 
are  there  imagine,  perhaps,  that  they  are  free. 
We  admire  some  handsome  bulls  which  are 
stalled  here.  The  eucalyptus,  planted  some- 
times singly  and  sometimes  in  broad  avenues, 
towered  above  us  at  a  height  no  other  tree  could 
rival.  In  this  favoured  spot  the  rich  vegetation 
has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  locusts.  Every 
species  grows  freely,  as  it  will.  For  this  rea- 
son, the  overseer,  anxious  we  should  miss  none 
of  the  rare  species  on  which  he  prides  himself, 
led  us,  with  an  air  of  mystery,  to  the  edge  of 
a  low  hill,  where,  with  an  authoritative  ges- 
ture, he  stopped  us  before  an  ordinary-looking 
tree,  destitute  of  leaves,  which  had  to  me  a 
familiar  air. 

"  Yes,  it  is  an  oak  you  are  looking  at.  An 
old  European  oak  in  the  Argentine.  What  say 
you  to  that?  " 

I   admit  with   prejudice   that  it  is  an   oak, 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  241 

though  at  the  same  time  confessing  that  I  have 
seen  others  more  favourable.  And  at  the  risk 
of  being  misunderstood,  I  acknowledge  that  it 
is  not  European  flora  that  most  interests  me  in 
the  Argentine  Republic. 

The  special  feature  of  this  fine  park  is  the 
quarter  reserved  for  the  bulls.^  The  specimens 
I  saw,  which  were  led  past  us,  are  magnificent 
beasts,  bearing  witness  to  methodical  and  pro- 
longed selection.  The  best  English  breeds  are 
gloriously  represented,  not  only  in  the  beasts 
imported  from  Europe,  but  also  in  Argentine- 
bred  animals,  which  would  do  honour  to  any 
country. 

The  management  and  staff  of  the  stables  are 
entirely  English.  Stallions  of  world-wide  fame 
are  paraded  by  English  stud-grooms  that  we  may 
admire  beauty  of  line  united  to  beauty  of  action. 

Now  we  were  to  see  the  trainers  at  work,  not 
upon  "  wild  "  horses,  since  they  belong  to  by- 
gone days,  but  simply  upon  young  animals  that 
have  not  yet  been  ridden.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  problem  here  is  exactly  the  same  as  with 
us,  but  T  venture  to  think  that  our  system  is 
vastly  superior.  The  colts  are  collected  in  an 

16 


242          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

enclosure  called  the  corral.  Pray  do  not  con- 
jure up  a  picture  of  Mazeppa's  steed,  with  fiery 
eye  and  bristling  mane,  as  depicted  in  the  fa- 
vourite chromo.  There  is  nothing  here  but 
ardour  of  youth  and  grace  of  movement.  The 
object  is  to  accustom  the  horse  to  man  and  his 
needs.  This  our  Norman  boys  quickly  achieve 
by  a  mixture  of  skill  and  kindness  which  does 
not  preclude  firmness  of  hand.  The  system  of 
the  Argentine  peon  is  very  different.  First  he 
catches  the  neck  of  the  animal  in  a  noose  and 
leads  him  out  of  the  enclosure  to  a  piece  of 
rough  ground.  There,  with  a  few  movements  of 
the  lasso,  the  limbs  are  so  tied  that  the  simplest 
movement  must  make  the  unfortunate  victim 
lose  his  balance  and  bring  him  heavily  to  earth 
at  the  risk  of  breaking  his  bones.  The  creature 
is  terrified,  naturally.  Meantime,  five  or  six 
men  run  in  upon  him — each  an  expert  in  .his 
own  way;  and  when  he  is  so  bound  he  can  no 
longer  move,  the  bit  is  adjusted  and  a  sheepskin 
saddle  adroitly  buckled.  All  that  now  remains 
is  to  set  the  animal  on  his  feet  so  that  the 
horseman  may  mount.  The  rope  is  then  re- 
laxed as  swiftly  as  it  was  tightened,  and  the 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  243 

colt,  on  his  four  feet,  firmly  held  by  the  head, 
his  eyes  blindfolded,  might  perhaps  get  over  his 
fright  if  his  two  forefeet  were  not  still  tied  to- 
gether by  a  last  knot  to  prevent  him  running 
away.  The  peon  gives  the  signal,  and  as  the 
last  loop  is  removed  he  leaps  into  the  saddle 
and  urges  his  mount  straight  ahead  with  the 
air  of  riding  a  savage  brute  and  with  a  lavish 
use  of  his  riding  crop.  Two  horsemen,  called 
"  sponsors,"  accompany  him,  rending  the  air 
with  their  cries  and  beating  the  creature  with 
pitiless  crops.  By  the  time  he  has  travelled 
two  hundred  yards  in  this  way  the  horse  is  mad 
with  terror,  and  asks  nothing  better  than  to  be 
allowed  to  stop.  Perhaps  there  are  exceptions; 
I  did  not  happen  to  see  them.  On  the  other 


hand,  I  did  see  poor  beasts  that  offered  not  the 

- — -— 

slightest  resistance,  and  whose  angelic  gentle- 
ness should  have  disarmed  the  executioner.  It 
appears  that  when  this  pejrjLorjiiance  has  been 
gone  through  five  or  six  times  the  colt  surrenders 
unconditionally.  In  the  days  when  horses  were 
wild  upon  the  prairies  these  practices  might 
have  had  some  excuse.  Nowadays  we  have 
different  ideas. 


244:          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

All  these  branches  of  work  require,  as  may- 
be supposed,  a  fairly  complete  set  of  buildings. 
Consequently,  around  the  farmer's  house  there 
are  outbuildings  of  every  style  of  architecture 
which  make  the  estancia  a  sort  of  small  village, 
whence  radiates  the  work  undertaken  on  the 
Pampas.  Thus  ordered  and  thus  spent,  life  in 
the  fields  is  a  "  solitude  "  broken  every  moment 
by  great  herds  and  gauchos  ever  on  the  march. 
It  has  nothing  to  daunt  even  a  man  who  is 
anxious  not  to  lose  touch  with  his  fellow- 
creatures  in  these  days  of  extreme  civilisation. 
Therefore  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  stay  of 
some  months  at  the  estancia  forms  an  agreeable 
part  of  the  programme  which  the  daily  life  of 
the  Argentine  landholder  forces  on  all  his 
family.  The  railway  is  never  far  off,  since  it 
brings  colonists  and  is  responsible  for  the  whole 
agricultural  movement.  Railway  construction 
proceeds  at  the  normal  rate  of  about  five  hund- 
red kilometres  per  annum.  The  provinces  of 
Buenos  Ayres,  of  Cordoba,  of  Santa  Fe",  which 
alone  furnish  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  agricultural 
exports,  are  naturally  the  most  favoured;  and 
also,  naturally,  it  is  on  the  Pampas,  the  ini- 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  245 

mense  reservoir  of  fertilising  energy,  that  is 
concentrated  the  maximum  of  labour  for  the 
extension  of  the  means  of  communication  that 
are  so  swiftly  and  richly  remunerative. 

Thus  it  is  not  too  difficult  to  move  about  in 
the  Campo.  Moreover,  the  motor-car — running 
now  on  a  road,  now  on  the  great  green  carpet 
where  movable  gates  provide  a  passage  through 
the  wire  fencing — facilitates  a  pleasant  inter- 
change of  neighbourly  relations.  I  have  said 
that  absenteeism  is  unknown  in  the  estancia. 
Often  the  head  of  the  family,  when  kept  for 
some  reason  in  the  city,  confides  the  manage- 
ment of  the  estate  to  one  of  his  sons,  who  in 
this  way  turns  to  magnificent  account  the  grand 
energy  of  youth  and  manhood  in  intensely  inter- 
esting work.  What  more  natural  than  for  the 
family  to  gather  in  the  fine  summer  months  be- 
neath the  shade  of  the  farms,  amid  its  herds 
so  full  of  life,  to  enjoy  the  beauty  of  the  harvest 
ripened  with  the  warm  kisses  of  the  sun?  The 
rides  are  unending  beneath  the  pure  sky  of  the 
long  mornings,  in  the  strengthening  breeze  which 
sets  the  blood  coursing  through  the  pulses  with 
renewed  force.  In  Brazil  I  heard  people  pity 


246          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  Argentines  because  they  lacked  the  resource 
of  the  mountains  in  the  great  heat  of  summer. 
The  Andes  are,  indeed,  too  far  distant  even  with 
the  railway  that  now  crosses  them.  (The  Trans- 
andine  line  is  now  working  between  the  Argen- 
tine and  Chile — forty  hours'  run  from  Buenos 
Ayres  to  Valparaiso  or  Santiago.)  But  the 
costly  pleasures  of  a  sojourn  at  Mar  del  Plata 
are  quickly  exhausted.  The  estancia  offers  a 
beautiful  retreat  of  active  and  fruitful  peace. 
There  are  visits  to  the  farmers  who,  little  by 
little,  are  coming  to  reside  on  the  domain  of 
the  estancia  (purchasing  the  ground  originally 
taken  on  lease,  and  grouping  themselves  in  such- 
wise  that  villages  are  in  process  of  formation), 
or  the  continual  inspection  of  the  herds  (rodeo). 
Another  occupation  is  watching  over  the  har- 
vest which  spreads  across  the  Pampas.  There 
are  daily  pretexts  for  trips  that  combine  pleas- 
ure with  usefulness.  The  tall  ricks  grow  in 
numbers,  the  grain  falls  to  the  snorting  meas- 
ure of  smoking  engines,  the  lean  native  cattle 
of  the  Pampas  yield  their  place  to  monstrous 
Durhams,  to  Herefords,  with  their  handsome 
white  heads,  to  Percherons,  to  Boulonnais,  to 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  247 

Lincoln  sheep,  with  their  heavy  fleeces.  It  is 
by  no  means  certain  that  the  amusements  of 
Trouville  or  Vichy  are  superior  to  those  of  the 
estancia.  We  may  be  allowed  to  think  that  the 
"  gentleman-farmer "  has  chosen  the  better 
part. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  game^hooting.  We 
must  admit  that  in  this  respect  the  resources 
of  the  Pampas  are  greater  than  those  of  France. 
Hares  and  partridges  are  on  the  programme, 
as  they  are  with  us.  M.  Py  told  me  he  had 
tried  to  acclimatise  the  quail — in  vain.  Some 
thousands  of  birds  were  let  loose  in  a  selected 
part  of  the  Pampas  and  disappeared  for  good. 
The  history  of  the  hareis  very  different.  About 
fifty  years  ago  some  Germans  liberated  a  few 
couples  at  various  points  of  the  Pampas,  and 
the  same  animal  which  at  home  produces  only 
one  or  two  young  each  year  began  to  swarm 
like  the  rabbit.  Several  families  every  year— 
and  what  families!  The  result,  disastrous  for 
farming,  is  that  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  hares 
may  be  reckoned  to  every  hectare,  and  you  can- 
not walk  on  the  Pampas  without  perceiving  a 
pair  of  long  ears  that  spring  up  out  of  the  grass 


248          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

every  moment.  The  flesh  has  a  poor  reputation, 
perhaps  for  the  reason  that  here  they  neglect 
that  elementary  operation  which  follows  im- 
mediately on  the  death  of  the  animal  in  our 
country.  The  partridge,  smaller  than  ours,  is 
a  solitary  creature.  Its  flesh  is  white  and 
rather  insipid.  The  martinette  (tinamou),  a 
sort  of  intermediary  between  the  partridge  and 
the  pheasant,  is  the  best  of  the  Pampas  game. 
One  may  hunt  it  without  turning  to  right  or  to 
left — certain  always  of  not  returning  with 
empty  hands.  The  favourite  amusement  is  the 
rabat,  or  the  "rope,"  and  shooting  from  the 
motor-car. 

For  the  rabat  horsemen  are  needed.  A  dozen 
or  two  of  peons  ride  off  at  a  gallop  in  no  matter 
what  direction,  since  the  game  is  everywhere,  to 
meet  at  a  point  out  of  sight  and  return  at  the 
top  of  their  speed  to  the  sportsmen.  Then,  long 
before  you  hear  their  shouts  or  see  their  out- 
lines on  the  horizon,  there  suddenly  appears 
along  the  uncertain  line  at  which  earth  and  sky 
meet  a  swarm  of  creatures  which  rush  and  cross 
each  other  in  every  direction.  Whether  the 
mass  is  near  or  far  off  it  is  impossible  to  say, 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  249 

since  there  are  no  objects  to  measure  by.  If 
far,  all  these  black  spots  on  the  luminous  back- 
ground may  be  horns.  To  our  inexperienced 
eye  they  give  the  illusion  of  a  herd  of  oxen. 
Then  suddenly  the  truth  becomes  manifest. 
You  have  before  you  some  hundreds  of  hares, 
which  will  quickly  be  within  gunshot.  But  the 
animal  is  sharp  to  discern  the  danger,  and,  in 
less  time  than  it  takes  to  write  it,  the  troop  that 
was  heading  in  a  mass  straight  for  the  line  of 
fire  melts  away  until  only  the  foolish  ones  at 
the  back  are  left  to  continue  their  course  with 
the  acquired  momentum.  In  this  way  the  car- 
nage, which  promised  to  be  terrible,  resolves 
itself  into  ten  or  twelve  more  or  less  lucky  shots 
apiece.  This  is  inevitable,  since  the  wire  fence 
which  effectually  stops  horses  and  cattle  is 
powerless  against  running  game.  The  day  when 
the  destruction  of  the  hare  is  decided  upon, 
which  is  certainly  desirable,  it  will  only  be 
necessary  to  fence  in  three  sides  of  an  enclosure 
and  drive  the  game  towards  the  opening.  In 
the  present  state  of  affairs  the  mere  sight  of 
three  or  four  hundred  hares  running  straight 
towards  the  guns,  even  though  they  make  a  right- 


250          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

about  turn  just  in  time,  is  an  entertainment 
much  appreciated  by  Europeans. 

Shooting  a  la  corde  has  a  different  aspect. 
The  mounted  peons  form  up  to  make  a  line  of 
beaters  a  hundred  yards  apart.  But,  unlike  our 
own  battues,  the  beater  precedes  the  shooter,  in- 
stead of  walking  towards  him.  The  reason  is 
that  every  peon  is  attached  to  his  comrade  to 
right  and  to  left  by  a  rope  of  twisted  wires, 
which  sweeps  the  ground  and  puts  up  every  liv- 
ing creature  to  the  guns,  which  follow  behind 
at  the  pace  of  a  horse's  walk.  The  hare  does 
not  wait  till  the  rope  reaches  him.  Often  he 
gets  away  out  of  reach.  But  ther^  is  such  an 
abundance  of  game  that  none  misses  the  animal 
that  may  escape.  The  important  point  is  for 
the  peons  to  keep  well  in  line,  else  huntsmen 
and  horsemen  are  likely  to  get  a  charge  of  lead. 
At  the  Eldorado,  M.  Villanueva's  place,  this 
happened  twice  or  three  times  in  the  same  day. 
The  partridge  (always  flying  singly)  and  the 
martinette  are  never  weary  of  marking  time. 
They  run  before  one  without  haste,  and  appar- 
ently determined  not  to  fly  away. 

It  occasionally  happens  that  a  sportsman  tires 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  251 

of  his  game  and  wants  to  end  it.  Several  times 
I  left  the  line  of  guns  and  ran  upon  the  enemy, 
which,  without  any  excitement,  still  kept  its  dis- 
tance and  never  gave  its  pursuer  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  it  even  hasten  its  step.  You  look 
around  for  a  stone,  a  bit  of  wood,  or  a  lump 
of  earth,  which  should  have  the  effect  of  driv- 
ing off  the  creature.  On  the  Pampas  is  neither 
pebble,  nor  stick,  nor  clod  of  earth.  You  have 
no  resource  but  to  swear  and  make  violent  ges- 
tures that  have  no  effect  at  all.  The  marti- 
nette,  too,  has  a  way  of  glancing  sideways  at 
you  which  expresses  a  profound  contempt  for 
the  entire  human  race.  All  generous  minds  are 
sensitive  to  rudeness  and  feel  a  just  vexation 
when  thus  treated.  The  rapid  chase  is  the  more 
painful  that  you  have  very  soon  before  you  sev- 
eral martinettes  and  as  many  partridges  which 
fly  backwards  and  forwards,  leaving  you  in  doubt 
at  which  to  point  your  weapon,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  you  know  that  in  leaving  the  line 
of  fire  you  expose  yourself  to  all  the  guns  which 
may  be  tempted,  by  fur  or  feather,  to  aim  in 
your  direction.  There  is  only  one  way  out  of 
this  critical  situation  that  I  know  of.  It  is  to 


252          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 


fling  your  cap  at  the  running  bird.     He  will 

off  then  and  keep  his  distance. 
The  victory  would  be  yours  afterwards  were 
it  not  that  the  chase  under  a  sun  that  would 


* 


seem  hot  even  in  summer  has  left  you  out  of 
;,  \  breath.  To  take  aim  while  struggling  for  breath 
is  to  risk  missing  the  bird.  Happily,  both  part- 
ridge and  martinette  have  a  straight,  low,  and 
heavy  flight,  which  permits  you  to  return  to  the 
estancia  without  dishonour.  Such  are  the  peri- 
patetics of  this  amusing  form  of  sport,  in  which, 
all  along  the  line,  firing  is  incessant.  The  steady 
walk  of  the  guns  is  only  checked  by  the  rope 
getting  caught  occasionally  on  some  tuft  of 
grass,  or  by  an  encounter,  not  at  all  rare,  with 
the  carcass  of  horse  or  ox  in  process  of  decom- 
position. Having  left  on  his  own  initiative,  he 
at  least  escapes  from  man's  ferocity.  You  pass 
without  even  having  to  hold  your  nose,  so  thor- 
oughly does  the  strong,  purifying  air  of  the 
Pampas  carry  away  in  its  boundless  currents 
every  germ  that  cannot  be  returned  to  the  soil 
to  perform  the  eternal  labour  of  fertilisation. 
On  all  sides  the  last  vestiges  of  clean  and  fretted 
bones  tell  us  how  lives  now  ended  are  taking  on 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  253 

new  forms  of  life,  and  in  the  gentle  murmur  of 
the  grass  that  bends  to  the  breeze  the  huge  white 
skeletons  that  brave  the  blue  of  heaven  have  all 
the  eloquence  of  philosophy  in  their  tale  of  the 
supreme  defeat  of  living  matter  beneath  the 
irresistible  triumph  of  fatality. 

With  no  other  break  in  the  horizon  but  the 
distant  ombu,  a  group  of  paraisos,  a  ranch,  or 
travelling  herd,  the  murderous  band  pursues  its 
way.  The  walking  is  good,  and  the  motor-car, 
which  follows  slowly  in  the  rear,  is  at  hand  to 
pick  up  the  weary  sportsman.  But  before  that 
point  is  reached  one  is  tempted  to  cast  off,  little 
by  little,  articles  of  clothing  which  rapidly  be- 
come a  burden  under  the  sun's  rays.  A  shirt 
and  trousers  are  already  much.  Even  so,  a  rest 
becomes  necessary,  and  those  who  have  any 
acquaintance  with  M.  Villanueva  will  guess  that 
there  was  present  a  cart  laden  with  refresh- 
ments. Halts  like  these,  in  the  precious  shade 
of  the  car,  are  not  without  charm,  if  you  have 
taken  the  wise  precaution  to  put  on  something 
warm.  When  the  incidents  of  the  day  have  been 
thoroughly  discussed  the  chase  is  resumed,  but 
if  you  are  really  done  up  do  not  imagine  your 


254          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

fun  is  over.  The  auto  will  take  your  place  in 
the  line  of  march  behind  the  rope  of  peons,  and, 
apart  from  the  game  of  running  after  marti- 
nettes,  nothing  is  changed.  The  endless  prairie 
is  so  truly  a  billiard-table  of  turf  that  not  a 
jolt  need  be  felt,  and,  after  a  few  attempts,  one 
gets  the  knack  of  firing  from  the  car  with  a 
good  average  of  successful  shots.  The  hare  suf- 
fers most ;  martinette  and  partridge  get  off  more 
easily.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  experi- 
enced chauffeur  is  a  powerful  auxiliary.  In  any 
case,  if  you  are  shooting  the  less  brilliant,  the 
pleasure  of  sport  in  repose,  varied  by  all  sorts 
of  unforeseen  circumstances,  more  than  compen- 
sates for  the  misses  and  lends  a  flavour  to  the 
sport  that  is  lacking  in  European  shooting 
parties. 

Better  still — the  day  is  slowly  dying:  soon  the 
party  will  break  up,  but  the  shooting  will  go  on 
all  the  same.  The  silent  peons  come  up  to  say 
good-night.  Dumbly,  with  courteous  gestures, 
final  greetings  are  exchanged,  and  then  the  order 
is  given  to  set  the  helm  for  Eldorado.  But 
there  is  still  light  enough  to  see  by.  So  here  we 
are  zigzagging  across  the  Pampas  in  complicated 


FARMING  AND  SPORT  255 

turns  and  twists,  as  one  spot  or  another  appears 
more  favourable  for  game.  And  the  slaughter 
is  terrific,  for  hares  abound.  Martinette  and 
partridge,  with  their  dark  plumage,  have  nothing 
to  fear  from  us  now.  In  the  faint  light  of  the 
setting  sun  the  hare  makes  still  an  admirable 
target,  and  plover  and.  falcon  offer  supplemen- 
tary diversions.  The  gay  little  owl  alone  finds 
grace  with  the  guns.  And  when  the  "dark 
light"  of  the  poet  left  us  no  resource  but  to 
shoot  at  each  other,  pity  or  perhaps  fear  of  the 
last  agony  sufficed  to  make  us  hold  our  hand. 
The  gentle  horned  beasts  moved  out  of  our  way, 
fixing  on  us  their  stupidly  soft  eyes,  and  leav- 
ing us  wholly  remorseless,  while  in  the  fresh- 
ening breeze  and  empty  blackness  of  sky  and 
land  we  burst  in  upon  the  lights  of  hospitable 
Eldorado.  ^/ 

This  simple  tale  of  a  day's  sport  in  the  Pampas 
has  no  other  merit  than  that  of  being  strictly 
accurate.  The  Argentines  might  very  well  con- 
tent themselves  with  the  pleasures  they  have 
ready  to  their  hand  at  all  seasons  of  the  year, 
for  in  these  regions,  half-way  between  barbarism 
and  civilisation,  the  gamekeeper  is  unknown. 


256          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

But  man  can  never  be  content  with  what  is 
offered  to  him.  Therefore  the  wealthy  estan- 
ciero  takes  infinite  trouble  to  get  thousands  of 
pheasants  sent  out  to  him  from  our  coverts,  so 
that  he  may  breed  them  in  his  preserves.  In 
districts  that  are  not  menaced  by  the  locusts  the 
birds  will  be  let  loose  shortly  in  the  woods,  and 
the  Argentine  will  then  pride  herself  on  shoot- 
ing such  as  that  of  Saint-Germain.  It  is  be- 
cause of  this  approaching  change  that  I  have 
set  down  these  impressions  of  a  day's  sport  in 
conditions  which  will  soon  belong  to  a  vanished 
age. 


CHAPTER  X 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN 

|  HE  traveller  with  only  a  few  weeks 
at  his  disposal  in  this  immense 
country  of  overflowing  activity 
cannot  pretend  to  make  a  very 
profound  and  detailed  study  of  it.  I  am  here 
setting  down  only  those  things  that  I  saw,  but, 
at  the  same  time,  I  endeavour  to  show  their 
significance,  and  to  give  some  idea  of  their  social 
import,  while  leaving  my  readers  to  judge  for 
themselves.  It  is,  of  course,  the  subjective 
method,  and  is  full  of  pitfalls,  but  it  is,  also, 
useful  inasmuch  as  it  sheds  much  light  on  the 
subject  if  used  with  discrimination.  My  friend 
Jules  Huret,  who  has  been  inspired  to  reveal  to 
the  criminally  incurious  French  public  certain 
countries  which  they  persistently  ignore,  takes 
all  the  time  he  needs  to  collect  a  voluminous 
amount  of  material,  which  he  then  proceeds  to 

17  257 


258          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

place  before  his  readers  in  accordance  with  the 
strictest  canons  of  the  objective  method.  We 
know  how  successful  he  was  with  North  America 
and  Germany.  He  has  marshalled  before  us  so 
orderly  a  procession  of  men  and  things,  that 
to  my  mind  he  has  defeated  his  object,  and  left 
us  no  inducement  to  undertake  the  journey  for 
ourselves  and  to  obtain  first-hand  impressions 
by  the  direct  contact  which  is  worth  all  the 
books  in  the  world.  Huret  is  now  publishing  in 
the  Figaro  the  result  of  a  year's  close  study  of 
the  Argentine.  He  has  taught  and  will  still 
teach  me  much,  no  doubt,  and  I  strongly  re- 
commend every  one  to  read  his  admirable  work. 
But  in  their  way  I  still  venture  to  claim  for  my 
unpretentious  notes  the  virtue  of  creating  in 
my  readers  a  desire  for  further  information,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  they  will  assuredly  want 
to  test  my  views  in  the  light  of  their  own  ex- 
perience. Humanity,  nowadays,  is  moving  at 
high  speed,  and  the  chief  interest  that  most  men 
attach  to  each  day's  events  is  the  opportunities 
they  may  afford  for  to-morrow's  energy.  But 
the  real  value  of  the  "  event  of  the  moment,"  to 
which  the  Press  attributes  more  and  more  im- 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          259 

portance,  lies  in  the  revelation  it  may  bring  of 
those  general  laws  that  we  must  all  understand. 
Hence  the  living  appeal  made  by  cursory  reflec- 
tions, irrespective  of  what  may  be  the  verdict 
of  the  future  thereupon,  since  our  "  truths  "  of 
to-day  can  never  be  more  than  successive  elim-  ^ 
inations  of  errors. 

These  generalities  are  intended  to  explain  the 
spirit  in  which  I  prepared  to  leave  Buenos  Ayres, 
and  drew  up  an  itinerary  that  was  necessarily 
curtailed  by  the  limited  time  that  remained  to 
me.  I  had  been  told :  "  At  Cordoba  you  will 
find  a  city  of  monks;  Mendoza  affords  a  charm- 
ing picture  of  fine  watercourses  lined  with  pop- 
lars, vines  in  profusion,  and  a  remarkable  equip- 
ment for  the  wine  industry;  at  Tucuman,  there 
are  fields  of  sugar-cane  with  dependent  refineries 
and,  also,  the  beginnings  of  an  extensive  forest." 
With  irrigation-works,  poplars,  vines,  monks 
even,  I  was  already  familiar:  so  without  hesi- 
tation I  headed  for  Tucuman,  with  a  brief  halt 
at  Rosario,  the  second  city  of  the  Argentine 
Republic. 

\^r 

In  its  external  aspect  Rosario  de  Santa  Fe 
differs  but  little  from  Buenos  Ayres.  There  is 


260          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  same  florid  architecture,  the  same  desire  to 
do  things  on  a  large  scale,  the  same  busy  spirit, 
though  naturally  on  a  smaller  scale.  Rosario 
exists  by  reason  of  its  port,  which  commands  the 
Parana.  The  prodigious  extension  of  the  town 
is  due  to  the  building  of  numerous  railway  lines, 
which  have  produced  an  enormous  development 
of  agriculture  in  the  provinces  of  Santa  Fe,  Cor- 
doba, and  Santiago  del  Estero.  The  cereals 
grown  in  these  provinces,  representing  one  half 
the  total  exported  by  the  Argentine,  are  carried 
by  these  railways,  whilst  the  Parana  furnishes 
a  waterway  several  thousands  of  kilometres  in 
length  for  coasting  vessels  on  the  upper  river 
and  from  Paraguay  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the 
Eio.  A  volume  might  be  written  of  its  docks, 
built  by  a  French  firm  under  the  management 
of  M.  Flandrin,  a  compatriot  and  native  of  my 
own  Vendean  village.  There  is  a  peculiar  charm 
about  meetings  of  the  sort.  A  journey  of  many 
days  has  brought  you  to  the  unknown  land, 
where,  with  the  help  of  some  imagination,  any 
strange  event  is  possible.  After  sundry  adven- 
tures, the  curtain  rises,  and  the  first  face  that 
meets  your  eye,  the  first  voice  you  hear,  belong 


R08ARIO  AND  TUCUHAN          261 

to  your  native  place.  Names,  scenes,  and 
memories  rush  in  upon  the  mind  with  a  train  of 
unexpected  impressions  and  emotions. 

To  think  I  had  come  all  this  way  to  be  con- 
fronted with  that  special  spot  of  earth  to  which 
through  all  travels  and  all  life's  changes  we  re- 
main so  firmly  bound!  Far  away  in  the  dis- 
tant Brazilian  mountains,  I  met  a  charming  Ven- 
dean  woman,  whose  tongue  had  kept  that  accent 
of  the  langue  d'oil  which  belonged  to  Rabelais. 
When  Sancho,  from  the  height  of  his  waggon, 
beheld  the  earth  no  larger  than  a  grain  of  millet, 
his  sense  of  proportion  was  truer  than  ours. 
Only,  instead  of  being  so  many  hazel-nuts  upon 
the  millet,  as  Sancho  thought,  men  are,  in  reality, 
merely  imperceptible  particles  in  a  restricted 
space,  bound  to  collide  at  the  least  movement. 

My  philosophy  did  not  prevent  my  feeling 
great  pleasure  at  meeting  M.  Flandrin,  who  is 
as  unpretentious  as  he  is  kind,  and  who  is 
a  credit  to  his  native  land.  We  made  a  tour 
of  inspection  of  the  docks,  and  the  inevitable 
trip  by  boat  round  the  harbour.  All  I  can  say 
of  the  port  thus  hastily  seen  and  already  de- 
scribed in  many  technical  publications  is  that, 


262          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

in  spite  of  tremendous  natural  difficulties,  it  has 
been  satisfactorily  accomplished,  thanks  to  the 
tenacity  of  the  engineers  and  the  admirable 
method  adopted.1  Moored  alongside  the  quays 
were  a  number  of  English  and  German  cargo- 
boats  (amongst  which,  I  saw  but  one  French, 
alas!)  taking  in  grain  at  the  rate  of  800  tons 
per  hour.  The  docks  were  begun  in  1902.  They 
were  designed  to  cope  with  an  average  tonnage 
of  2,500,000,  and  it  was  at  that  time  believed 
impossible  to  attain  that  figure  before  some 
thirty  years  at  least.  By  1909,  however,  it  had 
been  reached  and  passed,  and  a  contract  for 
their  enlargement  was  immediately  given  to  a 
French  firm.  Under  these  conditions,  it  is  easy 
to  understand  how  a  town  numbering  23,000  in- 
habitants in  1869  should,  in  1910,  contain  nearly 
200,000.  This,  also,  explains  a  rivalry  that  ex- 
ists between  the  second  city  of  the  Republic  and 
Santa  F6,  the  historic  capital  of  the  province. 
Rosario  complains,  with  some  show  of  reason, 

1  To  give  an  idea  of  the  capacity  of  the  port :  there  are 
5  kilometres  of  quays  and  81  kilometres  of  railroad  to 
serve  the  docks.  The  large  elevator  measures  3000  cubic 
metres.  It  can  handle  50  tons  from  the  Parana  and  500 
tons  from  the  railway  per  hour. 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          263 

that  the  enormous  fiscal  contribution  paid  by 
her  to  the  national  exchequer  does  not  procure 
for  her  the  advantages  to  which  her  population 
entitles  her.  The  deplorable  deficiency  of  schools 
in  Bosario  is  more  especially  a  subject  of  loud 
recrimination.  I  cannot  but  think  that  this 
claim  will  be  before  long  admitted.  As  for  the 
esthetic  future  of  the  city,  I  can  say  nothing. 
When  I  saw  it,  it  was  disfigured  in  every  direc- 
tion by  extensive  road-making  operations,  thanks 
to  which  there  will,  in  all  probability,  be  open 
spaces  enough,  one  day,  to  arouse  the  admiration 
of  visitors.  An  excellent  and  modern  hotel 
seems  a  good  augury  for  the  future.  As  usual, 
the  welcome  I  received  far  exceeded  anything  I 
could  have  expected.  But  the  municipal  im- 
provements scheme  had  occasioned  a  fever  of 
speculation  in  land  values,  and  the  one  subject 
of  conversation  was  the  fabulous  fortunes  to  be 
realised  in  this  way — so  much  so,  indeed,  that 
I  was  strongly  tempted  to  spend  a  few  sous  on 
a  plot  of  land  which  by  now  or  a  little  later  per- 
haps might  be  worth  a  hundred  millions. 

If  Rosario  has  made  a  fortune  out  of  the  in- 
credible increase  of  its  corn  harvests,  it  must 


264          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

not  be  supposed  that  cattle-rearing  is  neglected 
in  the  province  of  Santa  Fe.  By  a  fortunate 
coincidence,  I  arrived  on  the  day  of  the  open- 
ing of  the  great  annual  Cattle  Show.  The 
President  of  the  Agricultural  Society  happens  to 
be  one  of  the  most  distinguished  politicians,  not 
only  of  the  province  but  of  the  Republic,  and, 
by  his  kindness,  I  was  able  to  glean  much  in- 
formation on  general  topics,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  inspect  some  samples  of  agricultural  pro- 
duce that  would  not  have  been  out  of  place  in 
the  first  of  our  European  shows.  The  surround- 
ing provinces,  including  that  of  Buenos  Ayres, 
had  sent  up  some  of  their  finest  specimens  of 
horses  and  horned  cattle.  As  usual,  there  was 
a  superabundance  of  British  breeds  to  be  seen; 
but  our  Norman  horses  were  well  represented, 
too.  To  tell  the  truth,  the  dual  capacity  of  my 
guide,  who  was  no  less  eminent  as  statesman 
than  as  cattle-breeder,  caused  politics  to  some- 
what overshadow  agriculture  in  our  talk,  and  I 
found  out  that  Sefior  Lisenadro  de  la  Torre  was 
the  leader  of  a  party  that  is  aiming  at  the  over- 
throw of  the  Cabinet  now  in  power,  whose 
majority,  he  informed  me,  was  based  on  those 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          265 

very  administrative  abuses  that  I  had  already 
noted.  The  tendency  is  to  use  and  even  abuse 
authority  to  coerce  the  electors,  who  are  un- 
organised for  the  defence  of  the  public  interests 
against  private  ambitions,1  "  an  evil  that  spreads 
terror/'  as  may  truly  be  said,  and  one  of  which 
Rosario  does  not  hold  a  monopoly.  On  this 
theme  the  clear-headed  politician,  with  his  con- 
cise manner  of  speech  and  decided  tones,  gave 
me  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  situation  by  a 
brief  examination  of  the  enemy's  country.  And 
I  rejoiced  to  see  that  abuses  common,  more  or 
less,  in  all  old  countries,  and  whose  remedy  lies 
only  in  private  endeavour,  have  in  this  new 
community  of  the  Argentine  provoked  the  same 
keen  intelligence  and  determination  as  others 
which  I  noted.  Under  whatever  form  of  govern- 
ment, the  worth  of  a  country  lies  in  its  men — 
that  is,  in  its  sum  total  of  disinterested  activity. 
A  race  that  can  show  the  development  of  intelli- 

1  Speaking  of  a  recent  election,  a  well-known  leader  in 
the  province  of  Buenos  Ayres  said :  "  I  have  been  re- 
proached with  spending  money.  I  silenced  my  enemies 
by  asking  them  what  other  means  of  action  they  had  left 
me."  Making  due  allowance  for  exaggeration  natural 
enough  in  the  circumstances,  the  words  contain  a  hint 
that  may  be  usefully  retained. 


266          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

gence  and  character  that  have  so  struck  me 
in  the  course  of  this  journey  can  afford  to  await 
with  tranquil  courage  the  solutions  of  the  future. 

As  it  is  my  desire  to  leave  no  dark  corners 
unexplored,  I  must  make  a  reference  to  the 
strange  hints  of  revolution  that  I  heard  at 
Hosario  and,  later,  at  Tucuman.  "A  certain 
military  leader  would  be  displeased  if  full  satis- 
faction were  not  given  him.  There  was  every 
reason  to  fear  a  movement.  Dispatches  from 
the  Government  recommended  a  careful  guard 
over  rifle  magazines,"  etc.  I  was,  however, 
pretty  soon  convinced  that  all  these  rumours 
were  but  the  expiring  echo  of  a  bygone  condition 
with  very  little  foundation  in  actual  fact. 

Here  in  Rosario  we  are  not  far  removed  from 
the  life  of  Buenos  Ayres.  To-day  the  distance 
from  one  city  to  the  other  (300  kilometres)  can 
be  covered  in  five  hours.  The  last  part  of  the 
journey,  which  terminates  at  Tucuman  (1100 
kilometres  from  the  capital),  gives  us  the  im- 
pression of  a  complete  change  of  country.  At 
daybreak,  in  full  sunshine,  the  first  discovery  I 
made  was  that  we  were  travelling  through  a 
cloud  of  dust  that  entirely  concealed  the  land- 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          267 

scape.  With  a  kindness  for  which  I  can  never 
be  sufficiently  grateful  the  President  of  the  Re- 
public, Senor  Figueroa  Alcorta,  had  lent  me  his 
own  coach  for  the  journey.  I  slept  in  an  ex- 
cellent bed,  with  windows  carefully  closed  and 
blinds  drawn.  But  the  Argentine  dust  knows 
no  obstacles.  For  this  reason  the  prophecy  in 
the  Book  that  we  shall  all  return  to  dust  seems 
to  me  already  fulfilled.  My  beautiful  bedroom, 
my  luxurious  dressing-room,  with  its  welcome 
douche,  my  clothes,  my  luggage,  and  my  person, 
all  were  wrapped  in  a  thick  veil  of  fine  red 
dust,  ugly  in  appearance  and  dangerous  to  re- 
spiration. Yes,  while  I  was  sleeping  in  all  con- 
fidence, the  imperious  dust  had  taken  possession 
of  train,  passengers,  and  all  that  was  visible  to 
their  dust-filled  eyes.  The  stations :  merely  a  stack 
of  red  dust;  man:  a  vermilion-coloured  walk- 
ing pillar;  the  horseman,  or  vehicle:  a  whirl- 
wind of  dust.  Horror!  to  my  wrath  a  beautiful 
white  shirt  was  discovered  blushing  rosy  as  a 
young  girl  surprised.  I  washed  with  red  soap 
and  dried  with  red  towels  my  carmine-coloured 
face.  Here  is  the  explanation  of  the  complexion 
of  the  Indian! 


268          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Tucuman  is  in  sight — Tucuman,  the  land  of 
Cacombo,  the  faithful  servant  of  Candide.  None 
can  have  forgotten  that  the  Governor  of  Buenos 
Ayres,  moved  by  the  beauty  of  the  lovely  Cune- 
gonde,  was  on  the  point  of  despatching  Candide 
when  he  was  saved  by  Cacombo.  But  what  fol- 
lows marks  the  difference  between  Candide's 
times  and  our  own,  for  Candide  and  Cacombo 
in  their  flight  paused  in  "  a  beautiful  meadow 
traversed  by  streams  of  water/'  where  befell  the 
double  adventure  of  the  monkeys  and  the  mumps, 
whereas  for  us  meadow,  rivulets,  monkeys,  and 
mumps  all  resolve  themselves  into  universal 
dust.  I  strain  my  eyes  to  discern  some  features 
of  the  country:  a  dismantled  forest  is  dying  in 
the  dust;  some  lean  cattle  are  grazing,  on  clay 
apparently ;  enormous  cactuses,  like  trees ;  flocks 
of  small  white  birds  with  pink  beaks,  known  as 
"widows"  (vimdas)}  and,  from  time  to  time, 
the  beauty  of  a  flight  of  cackling  parrots,  making 
in  the  sunlight  flashes  of  emerald  in  the  dusty 
air. 

The  Marseillaise!  the  Tricolor!  the  Governor, 
the  French  colony ! — this  is  Tucuman's  reception 
of  me.  Handshakes,  salutes,  welcoming  words 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          269 

with  affectionate  references  to  the  distant  father- 
land. An  admirable  official  motor-car,  but 
execrable  roads  where  the  best  of  pneus  finds 
so  many  obstacles  to  jump  that  it  becomes 
quite  dizzy,  as  is  shown  by  its  continued  stagger. 

The  first  impression  given  by  Tucuman  after  ^ 
the  jolting  and  shaking  of  the  road  is  that  of 
ajcolonial  land.  Everywhere  the  "  half -house," 
hastily  put  up,  but  rendered  charming  by  its 
patio,  and  comfortable  by  the  disposition  of  its 
rooms  to  take  advantage  of  the  shade.  The  In- 
dian half-caste  is  king  in  Tucuinan,  "  the  Garden 
of  the  Republic,"  whose  women,  they  say,  are 
more  beautiful  than  flowers.  Everywhere,  in 
fact,  one  sees  bronzed  faces  in  which  two  im- 
passive black  eyes  shine  with  the  brilliance  of 
the  diamond.  A  long,  lingering  glance  which 
says,  I  know  not  what,  but  something  that  is 
totally  un-European.  Simplicity,  dignity,  with 
few  words,  slow  gestures,  an  imposing  harmony 
of  bearing.  I  know  not  whether  one  day  the 
dominant  race  will  succeed  in  modifying  or 
effacing  the  native  traits.  At  present,  nothing 
seems  to  touch  the  indelible  imprint  of  American 
blood.  A  few  of  the  women  are  very  handsome. 


270          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

The  French  colony  in  Tucuman  is  larger  than 
I  thought.  I  shall  see  it  when  I  return  from 
Santa  Ana,  where  I  am  going  to  visit  M.  Hille- 
ret's  manor.  As  we  pass,  I  notice  broad  avenues 
well  laid  out:  the  Place  de  FIndependance,  on 
which  there  stands  the  statue  of  General  Bel- 
grano,  in  remembrance  of  the  battle  of  Tucuman 
(1812),  and  the  new  palace  of  the  Governor, 
which  is  impressive.  From  sixty  to  eighty 
thousand  inhabitants.  The  town  very  commer- 
cial. The  country  broken,  with  high  mountains. 
Fertile  plain  suitable  for  growing  sugar-cane, 
tobacco,  oranges,  and  the  most  beautiful 
flowers.  Large  and  noble  forests  that  are  be- 
ing ruthlessly  devastated  to  supply  fuel  for 
factory  furnaces.  Uninterrupted  cane-raising 
all  the  way  to  Santa  Ana,  where  M.  Hilleret, 
who  came  to  the  Argentine  as  a  labourer  on 
the  railway,  set  up  a  sugar  factory,1  thanks  to 
which — and  to  Protection — he  was  able,  at  his 
death,  to  leave  a  fortune  of  a  hundred  millions. 
We  were  magnificently  received  in  a  hospitable 

1  The  sugar  industry  in  the  Argentine  is  but  fifty  years 
old.  There  are  70,000  hectares  now  under  cane,  with  31 
refineries,  the  majority  of  which  are  in  Tucuman.  The 
total  output  is  estimated  at  130,000  tons. 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          271 

mansion  that  betrayed  the  taste  of  a  Parisian 
architect.1  A  park  and  garden  bearing  traces 
of  a  recent  attack  from  locusts.  Specially 
beautiful  were  the  tufts  of  bamboo,  and  the 
false  cotton  plants  with  their  big  balls  of  white 
down,  amid  which  a  tiny  grey  dove  cooed  softly 
like  a  wailing  child. 

What  can  I  say  of  the  factory  that  has  not 
already  been  said?  It  is  admirably  managed. 
The  cane  is  automatically  flung  on  a  slope  down 
which  it  drops  beneath  heavy  rollers.  Two  thou- 
sand workmen  are  employed,  half-castes  for  the 
most  part — a  few  are  pure  Indians, — and  a  small 
number  of  French  foremen.  There  is  a  pic- 
turesque scene  in  the  town  of  a  morning,  when 
troops  of  women,  old  and  young,  followed  by  a 
procession  of  children,  come  to  market  and  fill 
their  wooden  or  earthenware  bowls  with  provi- 
sions, balancing  them  on  their  heads;  their  parti- 
coloured rags,  gaily  patched,  add  a  piquant 
touch  to  the  faces,  whose  firm  lines  seem  set 
in  bronze,  all  vitality  and  expression  being  con- 

1  Was  it  not  surprising  to  find  in  the  hall  of  a  Tucuman 
house  casts  of  some  of  the  best  busts  of  the  Louvre  and 
Comedie  Franchise? 


272          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

centra  ted  in  the  dark  fire  of  their  eyes.  The 
workmen's  quarters  are  indescribable  slums.  On 
both  sides  of  a  wide  avenue  there  are  rows  of 
tiny  low  houses  from  which  the  most  rudi- 
mentary notions  of  hygiene  or  of  comfort  are, 
apparently,  carefully  banished — dens  rather  than 
dwellings,  to  speak  accurately,  so  destitute  are 
they  of  furniture.  Women  and  old  men  sit  im- 
movable in  the  dust,  the  ~bombilla  between  their 
lips,  in  an  ecstasy  of  mate.  Children  moving 
about  an  all  fours  are  scarcely  distinguish- 
able from  the  little  pigs  which  are  grubbing 
in  the  rubbish-heaps.  Ineffable  smells  issue 
from  boiling  cauldrons  and  stewpans,  whilst  in 
the  darkness  of  the  doorway  the  nobly  draped 
figure  of  the  guardian  of  the  hearth  stands, 
speechless  and  motionless,  surveying  the  scene. 
According  to  European  ideas,  these  folk  are 
wretched  indeed.  Yet  the  climate  renders  ex- 
istence easy  and  they  appear  to  find  quiet  pleas- 
ure in  it.  We  may  be  permitted  to  imagine  for 
them  a  happier  future  and  higher  stage  of  civi- 
lisation, which  they  will  achieve  when  they  draw 
a  larger  share  of  remuneration  from  the  monu- 
ment of  labour  their  hands  have  helped  to  put 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          273 

up.  Laws  for  the  protection  of  labour  are  un- 
known in  the  Argentine,  which  is  explained  by 
the  backwardness  of  industry  there.  Although 
life  beneath  this  beautiful  sky  must  undoubt- 
edly offer  many  conveniences,  and  although  the 
mill-owners  whom  I  met  seemed  to  me  both  hu- 
manely and  generously  inclined,  factories  such 
as  those  I  visited  can  scarcely  exist  much  longer 
without  the  labour  question  being  brought  be- 
fore the  legislators.  Members  of  Parliament 
with  whom  I  discussed  the  point  appeared  fa- 
vourably disposed,  though  inclined  to  defer 
remedies  indefinitely. 

The  fields  of  sugar-cane  can  be  visited  with- 
out fatigue  by  train.  We  passed  teams  of  six 
or  nine  mules — up  to  their  knees  in  dust — on 
their  way  to  the  factory  with  loads  of  cane  grown 
at  a  distance  from  the  railway.  The  drivers, 
sitting  postilion-wise  on  their  leaders,  raised 
their  whips  with  threatening  cries  that  made  the 
lash  unnecessary.  But  who  could  have  imagined 
that  it  took  so  much  dust  to  manufacture  sugar! 
Out  in  the  fields  the  peons,  armed  with  the  long 
knife  that  is  always  stuck  in  the  back  of  their 
belts,  cut  the  cane  and  with  two  dexterous  turns 

X8 


274          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  the  blade  divide  it  into  lengths  for  the  presses, 
leaving  the  foliage  and  part  of  the  stalk  for 
the  cattle.  At  the  wayside  station  there  were 
five  or  six  dilapidated  cabins,  in  which  the  nu- 
merous progeny  of  the  cane-cutters  seemed  to 
be  thriving.  In  appearance  they  formed  a  tem- 
porary encampment,  nothing  more.  The  huts 
are  made  out  of  odds  and  ends  picked  up  at 
haphazard,  and  follow  a  simple  principle  of 
architecture  which  requires  a  space  of  some 
twenty  or  thirty  centimetres  between  the  floor 
and  the  palisade — for  it  can  scarcely  be  called 
a  wall — to  insure  a  circulation  of  air.  Thus, 
one  could,  at  a  pinch,  sleep  in  the  place  without 
arousing  the  smallest  envy  in  the  four-footed 
beasts  that  are  happily  slumbering  under  the 
starry  heavens.  Children,  pigs,  and  donkeys  live 
together  in  friendly  promiscuity.  Women,  bear- 
ing in  their  arms  their  latest-born,  appear  on 
their  threshold  dumbfounded,  apparently,  at  the 
sight  of  strangers.  In  my  own  language,  I  ask 
one  of  them  for  permission  to  glance  at  the 
interior  of  her  hut.  She  stands  aside,  and  I 
look  in,  not  venturing  more  than  a  single  step. 
The  only  attempt  at  furniture  is  planks  laid 


R08ARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          275 

across  trestles,  with  rags  of  clothing  (incredibly 
dirty)  doing  duty  for  mattress  or  blanket.  A 
movable  stove  adapted  to  open-air  cooking,  and 
four  stakes  in  the  earth,  on  which  are  laid  bits 
of  anything  that  comes  handy,  with  tree  trunks 
for  seats — this  constitutes  a  rough-and-ready 
dining-room.  Scattered  about  on  the  ground 
are  different  utensils  for  the  use  of  man  and 
beast.  Then  a  commotion.  A  naked  baby,  who 
is  sucking  a  sugar-cane,  suddenly  sees  its  treas- 
ure carried  off  by  a  lively  little  black  pig.  A 
fight  and  loud  screams.  Biped  and  quadruped 
come  to  blows,  and  the  effect  of  excitement  on 
the  dormant  functions  of  infant  life  is  such  that 
it  is  the  child  who  succeeds  in  worsting  the  pig. 
The  latter  noisily  protests.  Then,  there  being 
no  such  thing  as  Justice  on  earth,  it  is  the 
child  who  is  carried  off  and  set  on  the  heap  of 
rags  whose  odorous  dampness  will  at  nightfall 
soothe  its  sleep. 

M.  Edmond  Hilleret,  the  eldest  son  of  the 
founder  of  the  factory  of  Santa  Ana,  had  Jn^ 
vited  us  to  a  tapir-hunt.  To  camp  out  in  the 
forest  for  three  days  did  not  in  the  least  daunt 
us,  but  a  member  of  the  Society  for  the  Protec- 


276          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

tion  of  Animals  having  urged  upon  me  the 
shamefulness  of  letting  dogs  loose  upon  so  in- 
offensive a  beast,  and  Providence,  with  the  same 
intention  probably,  having  smitten  our  hunter- 
in-chief  with  appendicitis,  followed  by  an  opera- 
tion, our  shooting  was  directed  humbly  against 
the  parrots.  I  speak  for  my  companions ;  as  for 
my  own  part,  I  announced  the  most  pacific  in- 
tentions towards  the  birds  of  the  forest. 

Peons  on  horseback  and  light  carts  start  off 
in  an  ocean  of  dust.  The  only  way  is  to  get  in 
front  of  the  procession  and  leave  to  your  friends 
the  duty  of  swallowing  your  dust.  As  a  lack 
of  altruism  on  the  part  of  my  comrades  had 
inflicted  this  experience  on  me  as  we  went,  I 
took  care  to  return  the  compliment  on  the  way 
back.  The  forest,  which  belongs  to  the  factory, 
is  generally  denominated  "  virgin  "  for  the  sake 
of  effect.  But  my  regard  for  truth  compels  me 
to  state  that  it  was  not  even  demi-vierge,  for 
there  are  herds  grazing  in  the  clearings,  peons 
keeping  watch,  and  woodcutters  and  colonists 
unceasingly  busy  dragging  away  its  veils  with 
a  brutality  that  is  never  slaked.  Such  as  it 
is,  however,  with  "its  inextricable  wildnesses, 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          277 

through  which  only  the  axe  can  clear  a  way, 
with  its  tall,  flowering  groves,  its  ancient  trees 
covered  with  a  luxuriant  parasite  growth  that 
flings  downwards  to  earth  and  upwards  to 
heaven  its  showers  of  lovely  colour,  it  is  mar- 
vellously beaufiful.  The  wonder  of  it  is  this 
haze  of  parasites,  so  varied  in  species,  in  colour, 
and  in  growth,  with  their  invincible  determina- 
tion to  live  at  all  costs,  which  wrap  the  giant 
tree  from  root  to  highest  twig  in  a  monstrous 
profusion  of  new  forms  of  life.  The  dead 
branch  on  which  we  trample  has  preserved,  even 
in  decomposition,  the  frail  yet  tenacious  creeper 
whose  blossoms  had  crowned  it  high  aloft.  The 
tree  is  no  longer  a  tree :  it  is  a  Laocoon  twisted 
in  a  fury  of  rage  beneath  the  onslaught  of  an 
ocean  of  lives  whose  torrents  recognise  no  bar- 
riers. Whichever  way  one  looks,  hairy  monsters 
are  agonising  in  despairing  contortions,  victims 
of  a  drama  of  dumb  violence;  and  the  spectacle 
conveys  a  keen  realisation  of  the  eternal  struggle 
for  life  that  is  going  on  all  around  us,  from 
the  summits  of  these  verdant  heights  to  the  sub- 
terranean depths  whence  issues  this  living  force. 
And,  as  episodes  in  the  universal  tragedy,  the 


278          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

brilliant  colouring  of  lovely  birds  lights  up  the 
gloomy  enchantment  of  the  silent  tumult  of 
anguished  lives  whose  effort  after  mastery  can 
only  end  in  death.  Having  not  yet  learnt  to 
know  man's  baseness,  the  royal  magpies  of  Para- 
guay, with  their  startling  plumage,  pause  on 
the  branches  close  beside  our  path  to  gaze  on  us 
in,  perhaps,  the  same  astonishment  as  we  on 
them.  But  already  in  the  great  clearing  shots 
resound,  betokening  the  salute  of  the  first  ar- 
rivals to  the  denizens  of  the  forest  Now,  my 
parrot  friends,  make  for  the  fields  as  fast  as 
you  can,  out  of  reach  of  the  horde  of  enemies! 

But  it  is  precisely  these  clearings  that  the 
parrot  loves,  for  here  he,  like  us,  can  satisfy 
his  appetite.  When  his  tribe  descends  upon  an 
orchard,  good-bye  to  the  fruit  harvest.  We  were 
in  a  vast  clearing,  inhabited  by  a  small  colony 
of  farmers,  whose  huts  are  built  along  a  rivulet 
on  the  slope  of  a  meadow.  Here  are  fields  of 
maize  covered  with  dead  stalks.  The  cattle 
wander  freely  where  they  will.  In  an  orchard 
stands  an  orange-tree,  the  tallest  I  have  seen, 
full  of  golden  balls.  Hard  by  a  well,  on  a 
wooden  post,  there  sits  a  green  parrot,  with  red 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          279 

poll,  his  plumage  ruffled,  his  eye  full  of  contempt 
for  the  human  race.  Attracted  by  the  noise, 
two  women  come  out  from  a  dark  hut.  Gossips 
probably,  though  what  they  can  find  to  talk 
about  in  such  a  spot  it  would  be  hard  to  guess. 
One  of  them  attracts  attention  by  the  beauty 
of  her  form,  the  nobility  of  her  pose,  and  the 
warm,  coppery  tint  of  her  face.  She  is  a  Creole 
equally  removed  from  the  two  races.  Her  thick 
hair,  intensely  black,  falls  in  a  plait  upon  her 
shoulders.  Instinctively  she  has  twisted  pink 
ribbon — found,  probably,  in  a  box  of  biscuits — 
in  her  hair,  where  it  makes  a  line  of  light  in 
the  night  of  her  tresses.  Erect  in  the  simplicity 
of  the  semi-savage,  without  a  word,  without  the 
least  acknowledgment  of  our  presence,  and  with- 
out a  trace  of  embarrassment  or  affectation,  she 
stands  looking  at  us,  desiring,  apparently,  no 
better  occupation.  Her  features  are  regular  and 
delicate,  according  to  the  canons  of  European 
aesthetics.  Two  or  three  pock-marks  make  a 
startling  patch.  All  the  soul  of  the  native  race 
is  visible  in  the  dark  light  of  her  eyes,  heavy 
with  feelings  that  belong  to  an  epoch  too  prim- 
itive to  be  comprehended,  even  dimly,  by  our 


280          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

aged  and  vulgar  civilisation.  That  surprising 
pink  ribbon  and  the  shyness — like  remorse  for 
some  unknown  crime — expressed  through  the 
ingenuous  and  compelling  eyes,  are  probably  the 
secret  of  her  charm.  Whatever  it  springs  from, 
the  effect  is  the  same.  Whether  girl  or  woman 
it  would  be  hard  to  tell.  This  uncertainty  often 
gives  its  brilliance  to  feminine  power. 

I  tear  myself  from  contemplation  of  the  lady 
and  wander  into  the  forest  in  the  wake  of  the 
chattering  birds,  carrying  with  me,  by  way  of 
viaticum,  an  orange  whose  freshness  and  per- 
fume have  left  me  a  souvenir  no  less  delicious 
than  that  of  the  charm  of  the  young  beauty.  I 
was  slowly  returning  to  the  glaring  sunshine  of 
the  clearing,  absorbed  in  admiration  of  a  flight 
of  bright-plumaged  parrots,  when  a  vexatious 
gunshot  brought  me  back  to  the  realities  of  our 
sinful  race.  One  of  our  party  had  concealed 
himself  among  the  brushwood  at  the  foot  of  the 
tree  in  which  the  birds  were  holding  their  parlia- 
ment. The  danger  of  the  institution  was  in- 
stantly apparent,  for  five  birds  fell  to  the 
murderous  lead.  I  still  hold  with  parliaments, 
however,  and  with  parrots  which  debate  in  the 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          281 

branches.  I  know  not  what  they  find  to  talk 
about,  but,  judged  by  the  criterion  of  noise 
adopted  at  home,  it  must  be  of  great  importance. 
When  we  teach  them  to  speak  our  language,  I 
am  aware  they  utter  the  words  but  attach  no 
meaning  to  them.  I  have  known  humans  to  do 
the  same  without  the  birds'  excuse.  Moreover, 
a  very  remarkable  trait  in  the  parrot's  character 
is  that  he  is  altruistic  in  the  last  degree,  and 
will  face  any  danger  to  assist  a  friend  in  dis- 
tress by  voice  and  gesture.  When  one  is 
wounded,  the  rest,  who  have  at  first  flown  off 
in  alarm,  return  with  loud  cries  to  the  scene, 
abusing  the  sportsman  and  calling  on  deaf  gods 
for  justice.  If  further  volleys  make  fresh  vic- 
tims, the  flock  will  not  give  up  its  work  of  pity, 
thus  exposing  themselves  to  further  slaughter. 

All  this  is  to  explain  how  it  was  that,  on  my 
return  to  the  place  I  started  from,  I  saw  on  the 
ground  a  beautiful  green  parrot  with  a  crimson 
head,  lying  now  in  the  stillness  of  death,  while 
two  or  three  of  his  friends  limped  and  fluttered 
round  him,  hurling  maledictions  at  the  human 
race,  I  fear  they  all  figured  later  on  the  supper- 
table  of  the  colony.  The  young  woman  with 


282          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  pink  ribbon,  for  whom  the  scene  probably 
offered  nothing  new,  stood  and  gazed  at  us  as 
if  we  were  the  curiosity  of  the  moment.  One 
of  the  wounded  birds  had  climbed  a  stump  be- 
side her,  and,  without  any  preliminaries,  had 
nestled  up  against  her  like  a  child.  The  woman 
took  no  notice.  Her  questioning  eyes  seemed  to 
be  seeking  forms  in  which  to  clothe  her  thoughts, 
but  her  tongue  could  give  no  assistance.  I,  too, 
would  have  liked  to  speak  to  her,  to  learn  some- 
thing of  her  story,  of  her  notions  about  the 
world,  and  the  ideas  that  influenced  her  actions. 
But  I  knew  of  no  signs  in  which  to  clothe  such 
questions,  and  not  a  word  of  either  Spanish  or 
Guarani  (the  name  of  a  small  tribe  now  applied 
to  the  relics  of  their  language,  which  is  that 
of  the  natives).  With  a  rhythmic  walk  she  re- 
turned to  her  hut,  emerging  once  more  to  join 
our  circle,  with  a  tiny  grey  parrot  perched  on 
her  shoulder,  by  way,  perhaps,  of  a  conversa- 
tional opening.  The  bird,  fluttering  its  wings, 
stepped  down  as  far  as  her  fingers,  which  were 
slim  and  coloured  as  though  with  henna,  and 
I  ventured  to  tease  him.  The  long,  red  hand 
came  slowly  forward,  accompanying  the  move- 


ROSARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          283 

ments  of  the  bird,  without  a  shadow  of  a  smile 
on  her  impassive  face;  and  so,  the  time  for  our 
departure  having  come,  we  parted  for  ever  with 
all  our  questions  unasked. 

On  the  following  day  we  drove  to  the  Salto, 
another  clearing  in  the  forest,  enlivened  by  a 
waterfall.  We  fired  at  some  hawks  that  we  took 
for  eagles.  Large  blue  birds  flew  mocking  above 
our  heads,  and  our  hunters  ended  by  shooting 
at  imaginary  fish.  They  thought  a  walk  in  the 
forest  absurd,  so  whilst  I  and  two  comrades 
ventured  a  little  way,  they  chose  the  most  nat- 
ural occupation  in  the  world  for  men  who  have 
come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  see  an  almost 
virgin  forest,  and  made  up  a  game  of  poker. 
Oh,  the  joys  of  modern  travelling,  undreamed 
of  by  the  early  explorers ! 

Meantime,  I  wandered  straight  before  me 
through  the  woods,  at  the  risk  of  losing  my 
way.  Once  I  thought  I  was  going  to  know  the 
pleasures,  which  are  not  unmixed,  of  being  hope- 
lessly lost.  Already  I  saw  myself  reduced  to 
the  necessity  of  hunting  for  an  ornero's  nest, 
the  opening  of  which  is  always  in  the  north 
side;  but  one  of  the  party  pointed  out  a  line 


284:          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  bluish-grey  lichen  on  every  tree-trunk,  which 
indicated  clearly,  without  the  help  of  the  birds, 
from  which  direction  blows  the  north — nat- 
urally the  warm — wind.  Finally,  by  way  of 
putting  a  finishing  touch  to  my  education,  he 
assumed  that  I  was  thirsty,  and  leading  me  to 
a  creeper  growing  parasitically  on  a  large  branch 
at  the  height  of  a  man  above  the  ground,  he 
dexterously  inserted  his  knife  into  the  joint  of 
the  leaves,  and  there  burst  forth  a  jet  of  water 
slightly  aromatic  in  jt^ste,  like  the  fine  juice  of 
some  grass.  The  traveller's  sherbet!  A  few 
minutes  later  we  came  upon  a  peon  mounted  on 
his  mule,  who,  more  surely  than  either  bird  or 
lichen,  set  us  on  the  right  path. 

The  first  sugar  factory  founded  by  M.  Hilleret 
was  at  Lules.  There  we  found  a  fine  forest, 
wilder  still  than  that  of  Santa  Ana,  with  gor- 
geous great  trees  bearing  bouquets  of  flowers, 
some  white,  some  pale  violet,  and  some  pink. 
Fine  gardens,  and  a  park  where,  under  the  man- 
agement of  a  French  gardener,  every  fruit-tree 
of  the  subtropical  zone  may  be  found,  from  the 
banana  and  coffee-plant  to  the  mango  and 
chirimaya,  beside  a  thousand  other  strangely 


R08ARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          285 

named  growths  better  calculated  to  surprise  the 
eyes  than  charm  the  palate.  Of  an  evening 
there  was  dancing  in  the  garden.  Though  na- 
tional in  character,  dancing  here  is  much  what 
it  is  elsewhere,  since  there  is  but  one  way  to 
move  the  arms  and  legs.  The  most  striking 
part  of  the  picture  was  the  attitude  of  the 
dancers  when  resting.  In  our  countries  these  as- 
semblies of  young  people  would  have  been  the 
excuse  for  jokes  and  laughter,  often,  probably, 
carried  to  a  riotous  excess.  Here  the  immovable 
gravity  of  the  native  does  not  lend  itself  to 
merriment.  Young  men  and  young  women  ex- 
change, now  and  then,  a  few  words  uttered  in 
a  low  voice  with  the  utmost  composure.  On  the 
invitation  of  her  partner,  the  young  girl  rises 
in  exactly  the  same  way  that  she  would  move 
to  perform  some  household  duty,  and  goes 
through  the  rites  of  the  dance  with  its  rhythmic 
measures  without  the  vestige  of  a  smile  or  a 
ripple  of  gaiety  on  her  expressionless  face.  It 
is  not,  however,  for  lack  of  enjoyment,  for  no 
opportunity  is  missed  of  dancing,  and  the  balls 
are  prolonged  indefinitely  into  the  night.  We 
must  only  see  in  this  deportment  a  conception 


286          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  dignity  and  of  conduct  that  is  not  our 
own. 

On  my  return  to  Tucuman  a  great  recep- 
tion was  given  by  the  French  colony  in  my 
honour.  I  went  to  call — as,  indeed,  it  behoved 
me — at  the  House  of  Independence,  more 
modest  but  no  less  glorious  than  that  of  Phila- 
delphia. It  was  here  that  the  first  national 
Congress  was  held,  and  here  that  the  Oath  of 
Independence  was  taken  (July  9,  1816).  In 
order  to  preserve  the  humble  house,  now  an 
object  of  public  veneration,  it  has  been  built 
into  a  large  edifice,  which  will  preserve  it  from 
decay  in  the  future.  There  is  no  decoration — 
some  commemorative  tablets  only — but  it  is 
enough.  When  the  heart  responds  readily  to 
the  call  of  duty,  an  unobtrusive  reminder  is  all 
that  is  necessary. 

I  was  infinitely  touched  by  the  grandiose  re- 
ception given  me  by  the  French  colony.  In  a 
fine  theatre,  which  is  their  own  property,  the 
Frenchmen  of  Tucuman  extended  the  warmest 
of  welcomes  to  their  fellow-countryman.  I  found 
a  surprise  in  store  for  me.  It  was  arranged 
that  I  should  lay  the  foundation-stone  of  the 


R08ARIO  AND  TUCUMAN          287 

new  French  school  of  Tucuman,  and,  if  I  am 
to  believe  the  inscription  on  the  silver  trowel 
that  remains  in  my  possession,  given  me  for 
the  purpose  of  spreading  the  cement,  the  school 
will  bear  the  name  of  him  who  was  thus  its 
first  mason.  This  honour,  which  is  wholly  un- 
merited, sprang,  of  course,  from  the  natural 
longing  to  attach  themselves  in  any  way  to 
France.  Not  a  word  was  spoken  that  was  not 
an  invocation  of  our  country,  of  its  fight  against 
ignorance,  source  of  all  human  woes.  There  was 
a  numerous  and  fashionable  company  present, 
whose  large  befeathered  hats  proved  that  Tucu- 
man is  not  so  very  far  from  Paris  after  all. 
The  ceremony  was  concluded  by  a  pretty  march- 
past  of  small  boys  and  girls  carrying  the  Argen- 
tine and  French  flags,  and  singing  the  national 
hymn,  the  Marseillaise.  The  little  people  put  a 
world  of  spirit  into  their  song.  One  little  girl, 
about  two  feet  high  and  gaily  beribboned,  was 
very  determined  to  vanquish  "  tyranny."  How 
congratulate  her?  I  tried  to  express  the  very 
sincere  pleasure  the  scene  had  given  me,  and 
remarked  that  these  little  Argentine  tongues  had 
a  slightly  Argentine  accent  in  the  Marseillaise. 


288          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

"  That  is  not  surprising,"  said  their  proud 
master.  "  They  do  not  know  a  word  of  Fre»ch." 

Then  what  about  that  charming  baby's  loudly 
expressed  hatred  of  tyranny?  It  is  true  the 
significance  of  the  hymn  lies  rather  in  the 
music  than  in  its  phraseology,  now  a  century 
old.  Children,  begin  by  learning  French,  and 
do  not  wait  for  the  opening  of  the  school  whose 
first  stone  I  have  just  laid.  All  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you. 


CHAPTER  XI 
URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS 

JONTEVIDEO,  at  first  sight,  had 
given  me  so  favourable  an  im- 
pression that  I  was  anxious  not 
to  lose  an  opportunity  of  seeing 
more  of  it.  But  I  had  begun  with  the  Argen- 
tine, and  in  such  a  country  the  more  you  see 
the  more  you  want  to  see.  I  tore  myself  away 
from  it  with  great  regret,  conscious  that  I  was 
leaving  much  undone.  Time  had  passed  all  too 
quickly.  I  had  now  only  three  weeks  left  for 
Brazil,  where  long  months  ought,  rather,  to  be 
spent.  Small  as  it  is,  Uruguay  is  for  many 
reasons  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  South 
American  republics.  How  far  could  a  few  days 
be  made  to  go  there?  In  its  general  features 
the  country  is  not  very  different  from  the  Argen- 
tine Pampas.  There  are  the  same  alluvial  soil, 
the  same  estancias,  the  same  system  of  agricul- 

289 


290          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

ture  and  cattle  rearing.  For  me  the  principal 
interest  lay  in  the  Uruguay  character.  Three 
visits  of  one  day  each  furnished  me  with  an 
occasion  to  converse  with  some  of  their  most 
distinguished  statesmen,  but  is  this  sufficient 
ground  on  which  to  form  an  opinion  of  a  race 
whose  superabundant  activity  is  directed  to- 
wards every  department  of  knowledge,  as  of 
labour,  now  the  first  essential  in  any  civilisa- 
tion? I  do  not  pretend  that  it  is.  Still,  I  con- 
sider that  even  a  brief  investigation,  if  perfectly 
disinterested  and  unprejudiced,  can  and  should 
furnish  elements  of  sound  information  that  are 
not  to  be  despised.  But  perhaps  I  shall  be  ex- 
cused if,  instead  of  making  affirmations  that 
are  open  to  challenge,  I  give  myself  the  pleasure 
of  dwelling  on  the  splendid  qualities  of  these 
courageous  and  modest  men  who  are  engaged 
in  building  up  a  social  structure  that  is  worthy 
of  all  our  admiration. 

Uruguay,  once  the  "  Oriental  Band "  of  the 
Argentine,  lies  between  that  Republic  and  Bra- 
zil, forming  thus  a  buffer JSt ate  which,  in  the 
event  of  war  between  Kio  de  Janeiro  and  Buenos 
Ayres  (which  the  gods  forfend!),  would  make 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     291 

it  somewhat  difficult  for  the  two  hostile  armies 
to  get  at  each  other.     If  for  this  reason  alone, 
I  am  disposed  to  think  the  constitution  of  an 
independent  State  between  the  River  Uruguay 
and  the  sea  a  very  wise  provision.     I  am  aware, 
however,    that    peace    between    the    Argentine, 
Brazil,  and  Chile  is  the  accepted  maxim  of  South 
American  foreign  policy;  and  it  is  very  sound 
doctrine,  the  triple  hegemony  offering  a  fairly 
solid  guarantee  against  usurpation  by  one.    Not- 
withstanding its  diminutive  size,  as  compared 
with  its  gigantic  neighbours,  Uruguay  appears 
well  fitted  morally  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of  an 
independent  State.     There  is  a  marked  develop- 
ment of  national  spirit  among  its  population, 
whose  most  striking  feature  is  a  mental  activity 
that  is  sometimes  carried  to  excess.     Brazil  has 
laid  out  immense  sums  of  money  in  the  purchase 
of  Dreadnoughts  (not  always  perfect),  and  the 
Argentine  felt,  consequently,  in  duty  bound  to 
burden  herself  also  with  some  of  these  sea  mon- 
sters.     Against  whom  are  the   Argentine  and 
Brazil  thus  arming?     They  would  both  find  it 
hard  to  say,  since  they  have  plenty  to  do  at 
home  without  directing  their  creative  energy  in 


292          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

European  fashion  to  the  business  of  destruction, 
unless  absolutely  forced  thereto.  Let  me  tell 
them  that  it  is  but  vain  bravado  that  has  urged 
them  on  the  dangerous,  downward  path  of  arm- 
ament. Where  will  they  stop?  When  you  have 
a  population  as  large  in  proportion  as  that  of 
the  United  States,  it  will  be  time  enough,  alas! 
to  claim  your  share  in  the  great  international 
concert  of  extermination.  Begin  by  giving  life, 
oh.  happy  folk,  who  have  been  robbed  by  none 
and  who  have  nothing  to  recover ! 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  appearance  of 
Montevideo.  A  broad  bay,  commanding  the  en- 
trance of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  magnificently 
situated  for  a  commercial  port,  the  Government 
has  not  overlooked  its  advantages.  In  1901 
tenders  were  invited,  and  a  French  syndicate 
was  granted  the  contract  for  the  construction 
of  the  docks.  There  are  important  quarries  in 
all  parts  of  Uruguay,  which  is  more  favoured 
than  the  Argentine  in  this  respect;  and  the 
builders  found  all  the  stone  they  needed  close 
to  hand.  The  colossal  work  is  now  nearly 
ended.  In  1909  two  of  our  armoured  cruisers, 
the  Gloire  and  the  Marseillaise,  visited  the  port 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     293 

of  Montevideo.  The  comfortable  boats  of  the 
Mihanowitch  Company,  which  run  daily  between 
Buenos  Ayres  and  Montevideo,  moor  alongside 
the  quays.  Why  the  large  European  vessels 
should  be  forced  to  remain  outside  in  the  roatfer" 
is  a  puzzle;  the  only  explanation  seems  to  be 
a  quarrel  between  the  different  governing  bodies, 
to  which,  I  trust,  the  Uruguay  Government  will 
speedily  put  an  end.  As  things  are,  the  build- 
ing of  the  docks  is  but  a  sorry  farce,  and  the 
more  regrettable  because  one  of  the  features  of 
the  handsome  harbour  is  a  simplification  of  the 
harbour  dues,  which  entails  the  least  delay  on 
the  vessels  calling  there.1  M.  Sillard,  who  has 
been  in  charge  of  the  works  from  the  beginning, 
took  us  to  various  places  on  the  bay;  and,  in 
his  motor-car,  we  climbed  half-way  up  the 
famous  Cerro,  so  that  we  might  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  walking  a  short  distance  over  a  road  now 
under  construction,  which  was  spoilt  for  us  by 
the  disagreeable  saladeros.2  If  I  may  say  so 

irThe  docks  were  built  by  the  State  alone  without  the 
help  of  a  loan.  In  1906  the  tonnage  of  vessels  entered 
and  cleared  in  the  port  was  fourteen  millions. 

2  Meat  drying  and  salting  is  the  principal  industry  of 
the  country.  In  the  saladero  the  animal  is  killed  and 


294          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

without  hurting  the  feelings  of  my  friends,  the 
Cerro  fort  is  not,  I  believe,  impregnable.  Its 
demolition  has,  it  is  said,  been  decided  upon. 
If  an  hotel  or  casino  were  built  on  its  site, 
the  Montevideans  would  have  a  pleasant 
object  for  excursion,  for  from  the  top  of 
the  hill  there  is  a  grand  view  over  the  town 
and  estuary  to  the  ocean  and  the  River 
Uruguay. 

The  Lieutenant  of  the  city — an  American  of 
European  education,  with  five  years  spent  in 
the  Diplomatic  Service  at  Rome  behind  him — 
kindly  offered  to  do  the  honours  of  the  town  for 
us.  Under  the  guidance  of  M.  Daniel  Munoz,1 
who  is  as  well  known  at  Buenos  Ayres  as  at 
Montevideo,  we  saw  every  part  of  his  domain, 
from  the  business  quarter  to  the  luxurious  sub- 
urban villas,  the  well-planted  public  squares,  and 

cut  up,  and  the  flesh  dried  and  salted  by  a  process  ana- 
logous to  that  used  with  cod.  Uruguay  possesses  thirty 
of  these  saladeros  (as  against  fifty  in  the  Argentine  and 
Brazil) ,  with  Brazil  and  Cuba  for  its  chief  markets.  This 
article  of  food  is  now  much  esteemed  in  both  countries, 
though  formerly  it  was  reserved  for  slaves.  At  Fray 
Bentos  there  are  the  large  establishments  of  Liebig  that 
must  be  mentioned  to  complete  the  list. 

1  Sefior  Daniel  Munoz  is  now  Minister  of  Uruguay  at 
Buenos  Ayres. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     291 

large  parks  that  are  growing  rapidly,  to  say 
nothing  of  a  handsome  promenade  along  the 
sea-front,  and  the  unpleasant  smelling  saladeros 
of  some  of  the  environs. 

A  short  halt  at  the  Prefect's  private  house 
gave  us  an  opportunity  of  judging  of  the  com- 
fort and  luxury  of  the  big  Montevidean  dwell- 
ings. As  for  the  city  itself,  there  is  little  to 
remark  beyond  the  curious  contrast  offered  by 
the  tall,  handsome,  modern  buildings  and  the 
singular  little  "  colonial  houses  "  so  popular  in 
Montevideo,  which  look  as  if  some  sprite  had 
cut  them  off  short  at  the  first  story  for  the  fun 
of  whisking  the  rest  out  of  sight.  As  the  town 
of  Montevideo  can  boast,  and  must  obviously 
preserve,  the  aspects  of  the  capital  city,  these 
over-ornamented  "  half-houses  "  and  the  clumps 
of  green  trees  scattered  everywhere  lend  it  a 
youthful  charm  which  I  hope  it  will  not  soon 
lose.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  houses  are 
charming  in  effect — in  the  eyes,  at  least,  of  those 
who  do  not  walk  about  with  their  heads  too  high 
in  the  air — a  pose  that  is  not  to  be  recommended. 
They  not  only  constitute  a  very  agreeable  faqade, 
taken  all  together,  but  their  patio  is  so  designed 


296          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

as  to  be  admirably  adapted  to  the  special  needs 
of  the  climate.  If  I  were  going  to  live  in  Monte- 
video, it  would  certainly  be  in  one  of  these  little 
houses.  They  have  another  virtue  also,  since 
they  illustrate  the  necessity  of  experiment  in 
building  before  one  is  committed  to  the  settled 
plan.  If  the  Town  Council  insists  on  construct- 
ing houses  of  several  stories  in  some  of  the 
avenues,  the  measure  may  have  its  justification 
in  the  interest  of  the  aBsthetic  and  the  useful. 
But  before  they  trouble  about  the  effect  which 
their  streets  may  produce  as  photographs,  the 
Montevideans  will,  I  hope,  devote  attention  to 
comfort.  Let  the  town  spread  freely,  since  there 
is  plenty  of  space  available.  Is  it  not  the  curse 
of  all  our  large  European  cities  to  be  cramped 
and  confined?  New  York,  between  two  arms  of 
the  sea,  has  been  obliged  to  invent  its  hideous 
"  skyscrapers."  One  must  encourage  expansion 
to  get  all  the  air  and  light  necessary  to  health. 
The  population  of  Montevideo  must  be  nearly  a 
million  now.1  It  has  many  a  fine  beach  on  its 
coast.  A  rich  vegetation  exists  in  all  parts. 
Let  no  childish  vanity  induce  it  to  attempt  too 
1  Of  these,  100,000  are  foreigners. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     297 

soon  to  vie  with  Europe!     Its  friends  can  wish 
it  nothing  better. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  public  buildings, 
because  they  are  everywhere  the  same,  except, 
perhaps,  in  those  European  countries  where  the 
masses  have  taken  possession  of  the  palaces  of 
their  former  masters.  To  me  they  were  less  in- 
teresting than  their  inmates — that  is,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Government.  Of  the  three  Presidents 
who  did  me  the  honour  to  receive  me  in  the 
course  of  my  journey,  each  has  now,  in  the 
normal  course  of  events,  yielded  his  place  to  a 
successor.  Sefior  Williman,  who  left  the  presi- 
dential chair  on  the  1st  of  March,  had  the  keen- 
est possible  sense  of  his  responsibility  to  his 
country.  He  was  the  son  of  an  Americanised 
Alsatian,  and  seems  to  have  imported  into  his 
exercise  of  authority  that  valuable  quality  of 
well-reasoned  idealism  which  has  made  his  race 
one  of  the  most  precious  constituent  parts  of 
the  French  nation.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  an  American  President  is  first  and  foremost 
a  man  of  action,  exactly  the  reverse  of  the  chief 
of  the  State  in  our  European  democracies;  and 
a  turbulent  Opposition,  ever  ready  to  rush  to 


298          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

extremes,  makes  the  task  of  government  every 
day  more  difficult.  Senor  Williman  gave  me  the 
impression  of  being  somewhat  reserved,  but  the 
genuinely  democratic  simplicity  of  his  welcome 
and  the  slow  gravity  of  his  speech  betokened  a 
man  whose  convictions  would  be  deliberate  but 
profound.  We  touched  on  the  political  ques- 
tions now  engrossing  Europe,  and  I  found  he 
had  long  been  familiar  with  all  the  problems 
that  are  keeping  us  so  busy. 

It  is  not  easy  for  me  to  give  a  personal  opin- 
ion about  the  parliamentary  world.  The  Senate 
organised  a  friendly  reception  in  my  honour  at 
which  we  exchanged  cordial  toasts.  But  what 
can  a  Frenchman  do  when  he  knows  not  a  word 
of  Spanish,  unless  his  Spanish  hosts  can  speak 
French?  There  were  only  two  or  three  mem- 
bers of  Senate  or  Chamber  with  whom  I  could 
talk.  Smiles  and  gestures  of  good-will,  as  we 
clinked  our  glasses  of  champagne,  were  all  that 
was  left  to  us.  The  eyes  asked  questions  that 
could  be  but  imperfectly  answered.  Amongst 
graver  politicians  were  many  young  men  eager 
for  reforms.  One  of  the  "  youngsters  " — in  this 
fortunate  land  even  the  senators  are  scarcely 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     299 

out  of  their  teens — observed  to  me,  with  gently 
emphasised  irony,  that  Uruguay  had  travelled 
farther  along  the  road  marked  out  by  the  French 
Revolution  than  our  own  present  Republic. 

"  The  pain  of  death  has  been  abolished  in 
Uruguay.  It  has  been  retained  by  the  Argen- 
tine and  .  .  ." 

"  And  in  France,  I  acknowledge.  We  are, 
moreover,  confronted  with  a  strong  retrogressive 
movement  in  favour  of  the  right  of  society  to 
take  life." 

"  We  have  divorce  by  mutual  consent.  The 
Argentine  has  nothing  even  approaching  it. 
The  question  of  divorce  has  been  raised  there. 
The  influence  of  the  clergy  prevented  all  dis- 
cussion. As  for  the  French  Republic  .  .  ." 

"  We  have  still  retained  the  traditional  sys- 
tem," I  confess. 

"And  then  our  code  grants  the  same  rights 
to  the  illegitimate  child,  when  recognised,  as  to 
those  born  in  wedlock — this  is  common  equity." 

"  I  do  not  deny  it.  But  the  prejudice  that 
exists  in  our  public  mind  on  this  subject  appears 
to  me  so  deeply  rooted  that,  without  venturing 
on  risky  predictions,  I  think  we  shall  not  obtain 


300          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  solution  of  the  problem  that  your  democracy 
has  accepted  without  encountering  the  keenest 
resistance." 

None  will  be  surprised  to  hear  that  the  con- 
versation drifted  quickly  towards  the  Uruguay 
revolutions.  Here  the  thread  of  our  talk  was 
picked  up  by  a  young  journalist — a  Deputy — 
who  has  spent  a  long  time  in  Paris  and  is  gen- 
erally considered  to  be  a  coming  man.  In  witty 
and  picturesque  language,  he  explained  that 
Uruguay's  revolutions  had  no  more  importance 
than  a  fit  of  hysterics.  One  is  Red;  another  is 
White.  A  tie  or  a  bit  of  stuff  sewn  on  the  hat 
serves  as  a  badge.1  The  cradle  supplies  the  bit 
of  stuff;  in  a  moment  of  popular  excitement  it 
is  adopted,  and  becomes  at  once  a  point  of 
honour.  Then  some  little  thing  happens  which, 
for  one  reason  or  another,  leads  to  a  heated 
discussion,  and  immediately  there  follows  a  gen- 
eral conflagration.  The  only  fixed  idea  left  in 
you  is  that  you  are  a  Red  and  the  Whites  must 
be  exterminated,  or  vice  versa,  according  to  the 

1  The  Reds  are  the  advanced  party,  the  Whites  the 
conservative.  It  was  from  the  Reds  that  Garibaldi  bor- 
rowed the  famous  red  shirt  that  he  brought  back  from 
Montevideo. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     301 

camp  in  which  you  may  be  enrolled.  There  is 
nothing  for  it,  then,  but  to  let  the  effervescence 
escape. 

But  when  I  remarked  that  the  life  of  a  man 
counted  for  nothing  when  Uruguayan  efferves- 
cence was  escaping,  the  ready  assent  they  gave 
me  showed  that  on  this  point  no  discussion  was 
possible. 

"  But  I  understood  you  had  abolished  the 
death  sentence." 

"  It  is  legally  abolished,  but  illegally  .  .  ." 

"  Just  so.  Modern  law,  but  ancient — very 
ancient — practice." 

As  may  have  been  noticed,  there  is  a  general 
tendency  towards  comparisons — I  ought,  per- 
haps, rather  to  call  it  jealousy — of  the  relative 
progress  in  Argentine  and  Uruguay.  The 
"  Oriental  Band "  is,  in  Buenos  Ayres,  talked 
of  with  affectionate  good  nature,  as  if  it  were 
a  sulky  member  of  the  family.  You  cannot 
praise  Uruguay  without  winning  universal  ap- 
proval, accompanied  by  a  smiling  reserve  that 
seems  to  say,  "  The  Orientals  are  worthy  to  be 
Argentines."  At  Montevideo  you  are  more 
likely  to  be  asked  frankly  which  country  you 


302          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

consider  foremost;  and  if  you  reply  that  you  are 
quite  incompetent  to  judge,  be  sure  that  your 
answer  will  be  interpreted  according  to  the  in- 
clination of  the  party  interested.  This  often 
happened  to  me — annoyingly  enough.  Every 
nation  has  its  strong  and  weak  points,  which 
must  be  judged  according  to  the  form  they  take 
and  the  times  in  which  we  are  moving.  I  cer- 
tainly did  not  go  to  the  South  Americans  for 
a  classification  of  the  different  States  of  Europe. 
Why  should  I  have  been  expected  to  draw  up 
a  scale  of  civilisation  for  them?  The  Argentine, 
Uruguay,  and  Brazil  are,  each  in  their  way, 
grand  social  structures,  having  their  defects,  like 
the  countries  of  Europe.  I  am  telling  what  I 
saw,  leaving  to  all  the  liberty  of  replying  that 
I  was  mistaken  in  what  I  saw.  That  is  suf- 
ficient. But  one  of  the  best  ways  of  moving 
ahead  of  one's  fellows  is  to  acquire  the  capacity 
of  self-judgment  and  self-reformation. 

Amongst  so  many  kindly  hosts  I  may  pick  out 
the  youthful  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Senor 
Emilio  Barbatoux,  whose  polished  Parisianism 
made  him  the  mark  for  all  the  questions  dic- 
tated by  my  ignorance.  With  unwearying 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     303 

courtesy  the  statesman,  who  is  perfectly  con- 
versant with  the  French  point  of  view,  succeeded 
in  adapting  himself  to  my  particular  line  of 
vision,  and  greatly  facilitated  the  too  superficial 
examination  I  was  making  by  the  clearness  of 
his  information. 

I  was  invited  to  a  very  French  dinner  at  the 
Uruguay  Club,  where  I  found  the  greatest  com- 
fort  combined  with   Franco- American   luxury; 
and  I  was  able  to  study  at  my  ease  the  pure 
Latinity  of  the  Uruguay  politician.     If  I  had 
foreseen  these  "  Travel  Notes "  I  should  have 
jotted  down  on  paper  some  of  the  speeches  to 
which  I  listened  on  my  travels,  when  French 
culture  was  eulogised  in  the  highest  terms  by  the 
natives  of  these  countries,  whose  future  is  of 
such  interest  to  us.     It  was  not  till  I  had  left 
it  all  behind  me  that  I  became  conscious  of  the 
omission.     I  can  only  say  that  in  the  Uruguay 
Club,   and   again   in    Mine.    Sillard's   charming 
home,   I   found   France  again,   as  also   in   the 
saJons  of  the  French  Minister  at  Montevideo.1 

II  should  have  liked  to  thank  M.  and  Mme.  Carteron 
for  their  kindness.    Alas!  Mme.  Carteron's  sudden  death 
has  left  a  blank  in  her  home. 


304          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

There  was  something  of  France,  too,  in  the 
editorial  offices  of  La  Razon  and  of  El  Dia — for, 
of  course,  an  old  journalist  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  of  calling  at  a  newspaper  office.1  Hav- 
ing gone  there  intending  to  interview  the  editor 
in  my  own  way,  the  tables  were  turned  on  me 
and  a  volley  of  questions  fired  off  at  me.  Next 
morning  there  appeared  the  very  interview  I 
had  been  avoiding,  and  all  my  "  Ah's ! "  and 
"  Oh's !  "  were  cunningly  interpreted  to  make  up 
a  tale.  Consequently,  all  I  can  report  of  Uru- 
guay journalism  is  that  my  confreres  of  Monte- 
video excel  in  the  art  of  the  Abbe  de  PEpee, 
who  managed  to  make  the  dumb  talk.  I  trust 
this  remark  will  be  taken  as  praise. 

The  few  occasions  I  had  for  talking  with  my 
confreres  have  left  a  very  pleasant  recollection. 
I  can  truthfully  proclaim  them  all  Latins  of  the 
purest  water — Latins  by  their  vivacity,  by  the 
warmth  of  their  temperament,  by  the  trend  of 
their  mind  towards  general  truths,  by  every  sign 
of  their  predilection  for  wrestling  with  ideas. 

1  The  papers  are  distributed  in  the  streets  of  Monte- 
video by  children  on  horseback.  They  fling  the  sheets 
skilfully  into  the  doorways,  where  they  frequently  remain, 
respected  by  all  passers-by. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     305 

In  this  respect  it  was  impossible  to  think  them 
otherwise  than  youthful  and  delightful.  The 
estimable  Kenan,  who  was  indulgence  itself, 
gently  reproached  me  once  with  a  lack  of  leni- 
ency. Alas!  Time,  the  mother  of  Experience, 
brings  to  us  all  in  the  end  the  faculty  of  appre- 
ciation in  the  sense  in  which  the  philosopher 
meant  it,  and  he  himself  never  consented  to 
sacrifice  one  of  his  early  opinions  unless  he  could 
at  least  preserve  its  terminology. 

Still,  it  is  a  serious  question,  not  only  which 
is  the  better,  but  which  has  wrought  the  more 
good  in  the  world — youth,  with  its  presumptuous 
eagerness,  or  weary  wisdom. 

Now,  is  it  possible  to  deduce  any  definite  ideas 
of  the  special  features  of  the  people  of  Uruguay 
from  these  faithfully  reported  but  necessarily 
diffuse  notes,  culled  in  chance  encounters?  If 
I  had  not  just  come  from  the  Argentine  I  should 
have  plenty  of  material.  But  as  it  is,  consider, 
pray,  that  I  have  only  to  modify  some  epithets 
in  consideration  of  the  smaller  proportions  of 
the  subject  and  all  I  might  tell  you  of  the  aspect 
of  town  or  country,  as  also  of  the  mind  and 
character  of  its  inhabitants,  would,  to  all 


306          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

intents  and  purposes,  sound  in  your  ears  like  a 
twice-told  tale.1  Then,  you  will  say,  the  Argen- 
tine and  Uruguay  are  practically  one  and  the 
same.  That  I  cannot  admit.  As  well  might  one 
confound  Marseillais  and  Brestois,  who,  how- 
ever, are  of  the  same  country.  I  prefer  not  to 
pronounce  an  opinion  that  might  foment  the 
never-slumbering  rivalry  that  exists  between  the 
two  Hispano-American  peoples  of  La  Plata. 
But  as  the  common-sense  of  Governments  and 
peoples  generally  prevails  over  public  excite- 
ment, and  as  the  paramount  interest  of  both 
countries  is  the  same  in  economic  matters  as 
well  as  in  the  more  or  less  clearly  defined  field 
of  American  politics,  there  is,  I  think,  no  reason 
to  fear  that  either  can  take  offence  at  an  opin- 
ion inspired  by  equal  respect  for  both  parties. 
What  more  shall  I  say?  A  country  of 

1  There  is  only  one  point  that  it  is  only  just  to  repeat: 
it  is  that  the  women  of  Uruguay  are  very  beautiful.  More 
or  less  so  than  the  Argentinos?  In  the  Pan-American 
Congress  the  ladies  of  Buenos  Ayres  gave  the  palm  to 
a  celebrated  beauty  of  Montevideo,  in  an  outburst  of 
hospitable  chivalry.  I  would  not  have  the  bad  taste  to 
say  a  word  either  way.  The  two  banks  of  La  Plata  appear 
to  me  equally  propitious  for  the  development  of  feminine 
aesthetics,  and  for  the  foreigner  who  loves  art  the  hand- 
somest model  is  ever  that  which  is  before  his  eyes. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     307 

1,400,000  inhabitants;  a  town  of  400,000  souls. 
If  Buenos  Ayres  is  the  second  Latin  city  in  the 
world,  Montevideo  follows — at  some  little  dis- 
tance, perhaps,  but  with  a  creditable  total.  The 
soil  is  no  less  well  worked,  cattle-rearing  is 
equally  successful,  while  the  saladeros  and  large 
factories,  like  those  of  the  Liebig  Company  at 
Fray  Bentos,  provide  a  market  as  good  as  the 
freezing-machines  for  Buenos  Ayres.  The  po- 
litical and  social  institutions  are  much  alike, 
both  inspired  by  the  same  regard  for  equality  as 
proclaimed  by  the  French  Revolution,  and  per- 
meated by  our  own  doctrines  of  justice  and 
liberty.  And  if  the  Uruguayans  have  ventured 
to  carry  purely  logical  solutions  farther  than 
we  have  done,  the  reason  is  probably  that  the 
democratic  Governments  of  these  new  countries 
have  not  had  to  contend  with  the  same  atavistic 
resistance  that  must  be  reckoned  with  in  older 
lands,  where  men's  minds  have  been  moulded 
by  long  history.  A  cheap  criticism  might  here 
be  made  by  considering  only  such  and  such  an 
aspect  of  these  young  communities.  We  lay 
great  stress  on  their  revolutions,  and  whilst  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  violence  will  before  long  be 


308          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

laid  aside,  I  have  unreservedly  set  down  all  I 
learned  about  these  movements.  Nevertheless, 
we  must  admit  that  Uruguay  is  not  without  a 
show  of  reason  when  she  replies  by  throwing 
up  at  us  the  floods  of  blood  that  we  have  shed 
in  the  course  of  our  civil  wars,  and  that  down 
to  our  most  recent  history.  Let  the  sinless 
throw  the  first  stone. 

The  ardent  nationalism  of  Uruguay  has 
nothing  to  fear  from  that  of  the  Argentine. 
There  are  advantages  and  disadvantages  in  im- 
porting too  great  sensitiveness  into  every  ques- 
tion. As  a  contribution  to  the  International 
Exhibition  in  honour  of  the  Argentine  centenary, 
Uruguay  published  a  very  handsome  volume,  in 
which  there  was  set  forth  in  pictures  and  figures 
the  entire  history  of  their  national  develop- 
ment, the  text  being  given  in  French  and 
Spanish.  The  title  was  Uruguay  Through  One 
Century.  The  evolution  of  the  Oriental  Repub- 
lic is  therein  set  forth.  Of  course,  the  weak 
spot  of  such  works  is  that  they  gloss  over  the 
deficiencies;  and  thus,  though  hiding  nothing, 
there  is  always  the  risk  of  discomfiture  wheD 
they  are  subjected  to  the  brilliant  light. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     309 

It  remains  none  the  less  true  that  the  economic 
growth  of  Uruguay  is  in  no  whit  inferior  to  that 
of  the  Argentine  in  these  last  few  years,  and 
the  promise  of  the  future  justifies  the  highest 
hopes.  It  is  possible  that  on  either  side  of  the 
estuary  the  heat  of  political  and  social  verbiage 
is  not  always  in  accordance  with  cold  reality. 
This  is  a  criticism  that  might  be  made  of  any 
land,  and  I  could  apply  it  easily  to  those  I 
know  best. 

When  all  defects  and  excellences  are  taken 
into  account,  I  should  say  the  Uruguayan  is 
distinguished  from  the  Argentine  by  his  impul- 
sive idealism.  Less  sober-minded  and  less  at- 
tached to  novelty  of  doctrine — these  are  the  two 
points  that  struck  me  first  in  his  character.  For 
this  very  reason  he  is  more  prone  to  argue  about 
theories,  and  more  expansive  about  himself  and 
others.  It  may  be  that  French  is  less  current 
at  Montevideo  than  at  Buenos  Ayres,  though  it 
seemed  to  me  that,  intellectually,  French  influ- 
ence, if  less  profound,  is  more  patent  on  the 
surface.  The  mixture  of  European  races  ifij 
about  the  same  in  the  two  countries.  How  is 
it  that  the  first  impression  is  one  of  greater 


310          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Latinity? — Latinity  of  feeling,  which  lends  a 
charm  to  social  relations;  Latinity  of  thought 
and  action,  with  all  the  advantages  of  sponta- 
neity, all  the  defects  of  method,  its  alterna- 
tions of  enthusiasm  and  hesitation  in  fulfilling 
its  plans.  The  Latin  conceived  and  created  this 
modern  civilisation,  which  the  Northerner  has 
appropriated  to  his  own  solid  and  empiric  struc- 
tures ;  but  he  has  only  succeeded  in  giving  them 
their  present  universal  application  by  renewed 
contact  with  the  ideal  in  which  the  descendant 
of  the  Koman  conquest  too  readily  found  con- 
solation for  his  own  desultory  practice.  South 
American  Latinity  has  allowed  itself  to  be  left 
far  behind  by  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  Eepublic 
of  the  North,  just  as  European  Latinity  has 
suffered  its  fiercest  attacks  from  those  who  were 
designated  the  "  Barbarians  "  by  ancient  Rome. 
Yet  how  great  would  be  the  darkness  if  the 
light  of  Latinity,  as  it  survives  even  in  its 
enemies,  were  suddenly  to  go  out !  If  man  could 
always  measure  the  obstacle,  he  would  frequently 
lack  courage  for  the  leap.  It  was  the  force  of 
Latin  impetus  that  sent  modern  humanity  forth 
to  besiege  the  fortresses  of  oppression,  and  it  is 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     311 

the  task  of  the  experimental  method  to  con- 
vert them  by  patience  and  perseverance  into  asy- 
lums of  liberty ;  we  know  that  to  accomplish  the 
miracle  it  will  be  necessary  for  the  citizen  to 
be  made  anew  by  the  exercise  of  self-control 
and  a  primitive  respect  for  the  liberty  of 
his  neighbour.  Considering  all  the  feats  that 
have  been  accomplished  by  the  Latin  races, 
I  see  nothing  before  them  but  this  last  and 
crowning  marvel  to  complete  their  amazing 
history. 

In  Uruguay  the  first  indication  of  this  new 
order  of  things  will  be  the  suppression  of  revo- 
lution. Before  this  comes  to  pass  there  will  be 
great  changes  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  in 
the  reflex  action  of  humanity  and,  in  a  less  de- 
gree, in  its  reasoning  consciousness.  Here  is  an 
educational  work  which  offers  a  vast  field  for 
future  effort. 

The  Government  of  Uruguay  is  well  aware 
that  the  greatest  difficulty  in  the  way  of  self- 
government  is  to  establish  the  relation  between 
principle  and  practice.  It  seeks,  therefore,  to 
implant  in  the  young  those  broad  general  prin- 
ciples by  which  our  private  and  public  life  must 


312          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

be  regulated.1  I  lacked  time  to  visit  the  schools, 
which  are  the  most  unmistakable  thermometer 
of  any  social  structure.  A  glance  at  the  cata- 
logue sent  by  the  Primary  Schools  Council  to 
the  Third  Congress  of  School  Hygiene,  held  in 
Paris,  August  2  to  7,  1910,  will  give  us  some 
light  on  the  subject.  This  is  not  the  place  in 
which  to  describe  the  admirable  organisation  of 
obligatory  primary  teaching  in  Uruguay  and  the 
remarkable  development  of  the  primary  schools 
under  Senor  Williman's  presidency.  The  syl- 
labus for  a  period  of  school  life  from  the  sixth 
to  the  fourteenth  years  is,  I  think,  most  inter- 
esting. In  all  the  schools  which  are  ranked  as 
of  first,  second,  or  third  degree,  and  in  the  coun- 
try schools,  the  characteristic  of  the  course  is 
the  revival  of  the  object-lesson,  still  too  often 
sacrificed  in  our  European  schools  to  the  subjec- 
tive teaching  of  olden  days.  In  the  very  first 
year's  work  I  note  that  the  following  subjects 

!0n  the  initiative  of  Senor  Claude  Williman,  the  late 
President,  360  country  schools  have  been  opened  in  Uru- 
guay, so  that  the  total  number  of  primary  public  schools 
supported  by  the  State  reaches  at  the  end  of  1910,  1000, 
and  gives  us  a  ratio  of  one  public  school  per  1095  of  the 
population. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     313 

are  included  (to  be  carried  farther  in  later 
years) :  geometry,  notions  of  locality,  the  hu- 
man body,  animals,  plants,  minerals,  weights  and 
colour,  demonstration  lessons,  etc. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  first  notions  of  such 
matters  must,  if  they  are  to  reach  the  minds  of 
infants  of  six  years,  be  of  the  most  rudimentary 
character.  But  is  not  this  the  right  age  at 
which  to  begin  to  give  a  bias  to  the  child's  mind? 
In  successive  years  it  will  be  taught  to  observe 
and  make  simple  experiments,  so  that  it  is  pro- 
gressively prepared  for  contact  with  the  world 
in  which  it  will  be  called  to  live,  in  a  way  that 
has  little  in  common  with  the  absorption  of  gen- 
eral rules  which,  until  very  recently,  constituted 
the  bulk  of  what  we  call  education.  The  very 
fact  that  they  have  evolved  this  system  of  edu- 
cation, and  that  they  have  put  their  theories 
into  practice,  proves  that  the  Latins  of  Uruguay 
are  on  the  right  road  to  succeed  in  the  realisa- 
tion of  their  hopes.  For  if  they  claim  to  im- 
part to  budding  intelligence  a  solid  base  of 
observation  and  experience,  or,  in  other  words,  to 
teach  them  the  sensations  that  different  pheno- 
mena give  to  us,  and  offer  such  explanations 


314          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

as  we  can  supply,  they  will  surely  not  be  checked 
by  the  higher  generalisations  which  are  the  nat- 
ural outcome  of  scientific  study  and  also  its 
crown.  Thus,  in  the  catalogue  of  the  school 
libraries  for  the  use  of  pupils  and  professors  I 
find  such  French  works  as  these:  Le  Bon — 
Psychologic  de  F  Education,  L'fivolution  de  la 
matiere;  Le  Dantec — Les  Influences  Ancestrales, 
De  Fhomme  a  la  Science;  Henri  Poincare — La 
Valeur  de  la  Science,  La  Science  et  FHypothese. 
If  we  are  not  careful  these  "  savages  "  will  out- 
strip the  "  civilised."  I  shall  make  no  bold  pre- 
dictions. There  is,  as  I  hinted  just  now,  so 
wide  a  margin  between  understanding  and  the 
act  that  should  result  from  it  that  the  magnifi- 
cent progress  made  in  words  is  out  of  propor- 
tion to  the  slow  evolution  of  action.  It  remains 
for  our  Uruguayan  friends,  as  for  their  Euro- 
pean judges,  to  surprise  the  world  by  a  new 
history  of  human  society. 

Whatever  this  history  may  hold  in  store  for 
us,  I  am  glad  to  think  that  our  Latin  republics 
of  South  America — and  Uruguay  amongst  the 
first — will  offer  the  spectacle  of  a  splendid  effort 
of  high  achievement.  I  will  not  seek  to  hide  the 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     315 

great  pleasure  it  gives  me  to  record  the  fact,  be- 
cause, in  the  first  place,  the  sight  of  man  labour- 
ing to  raise  himself  is  always  suggestive;  and, 
secondly,  because  for  a  critical  mind  there  is  no 
better  complement  than  the  need  of  hope. 


CHAPTER  XII 


RIO   DE   JANEIRO 

HE  Orissa  is  an  old  coasting  steamer 
of  the  Pacific  Line,  which  calls 
at  the  western  ports  of  South 
America,  beginning  at  Callao,  and 
passing  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  pushes 
as  far  as  Montevideo,  whence  Santos  and  Kio 
de  Janeiro  are  reached  on  the  way  to  South- 
ampton, the  end  of  the  journey,  with  a  halt  at 
La  Palice.  The  Orissa  is  not  a  rapid  boat,  but 
she  is  very  staunch,  and  if  her  internal  arrange- 
ments, of  the  oldest  description,  be  not  more  than 
rudimentary,  the  voyage  I  made  in  her  was  very 
agreeable,  thanks  to  the  company  of  the  captain, 
who  I  found  knew  India  well.  A  heavy  sea  and 
a  head  wind  made  us  a  day  late — a  fair  record 
in  a  journey  only  supposed  to  cover  three  days. 
The  greatest  trial  on  board  was  the  music  that 
played  at  mealtimes,  when,  without  any  provoca- 

316 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  317 

tion,  three  old  salts,  of  pacific  aspect  as  befitted 
servants  of  their  Company,  made  daily  distract- 
ing attempts  to  draw  piercing  discords  from  in- 
struments which  proved  a  cruel  test  of  the 
harmony  of  our  constitutions.  One  blew  wildly 
into  the  little  hole  of  a  metal  rod  which  shrieked 
in  response;  the  second  scraped  furious  sounds 
from  his  strings;  while  a  piano,  built  probably 
about  the  time  of  Columbus,  vainly  endeavoured 
to  bring  the  others  into  tune.  It  took  an  alarm- 
ing quantity  of  ginger  and  Worcester  sauce  to 
settle  the  nerve-cells  so  cruelly  exasperated  by 
the  rapid  absorption  of  food  in  the  discordant 
tumult  of  this  orchestra.  We  know  the  ancients 
believed  in  the  soothing  influence  of  divine  har- 
mony. I  wondered  whether  the  Orissa's  fife 
might  not  have  had  something  to  do  with  the  sar- 
aband of  the  wild  waves  we  encountered.  I  lay 
the  doubt  before  the  directors  of  the  Company. 

One  thing  is  certain;  at  dawn,  with  no  music 
at  all,  and  (remarkable  concidence)  with  a  sea 
that  had  suddenly  calmed  down,  we  entered  the 
Santos  River.  A  long  arm  of  the  sea  between 
low-lying  shores  ending  in  a  vast  bay  framed 
in  high  mountains;  marshy  plains  covered  with 


318          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

a  tangle  of  tropical  vegetation,  or  a  low  line  of 
hill  buttresses;  all  that  is  visible  of  the  land 
seems  to  be  sending  upwards  to  the  blue  sky 
its  tall  shoots  of  foliage,  which  testify  to  the 
effect  of  the  vivifying  orb  on  the  quivering  sap 
of  the  tropics.  On  all  sides,  under  the  swaying 
lacework  of  green  leaves,  there  appeared  brightly 
painted  cabins,  which  set  a  note  of  bold  colour 
in  the  sea  of  verdure.1  Pirogues  made  from  the 
hollowed  trunks  of  trees  and  painted  in  the 
crude  tones  beloved  of  savages  glide  up  and 
down  the  transparent  waters.  Nothing  here 
that  recalls  Europe.  This  is  where  the  curtain 
rises  on  the  New  World.  Shadowy  forms,  in 
strange  draperies,  pass  to  and  fro  before  the 
little  cabins  whose  colouring  gives  them  a  strong 
resemblance  to  children's  toys,  and  then  sud- 
denly disappear  as  though  swallowed  up  in  the 
luminous  mystery  of  all  this  foliage.  The  re- 
lative proportions  of  all  things  are  new  here. 
Nature  has  broken  her  usual  limit  in  these 

*In  Brazil  there  are  none  of  the  half -houses  of  the 
Argentine  and  Uruguay.  The  Brazilian  eye  loves,  on 
the  other  hand,  bright  colours.  The  houses  are  therefore 
daubed  with  blue,  yellow,  and  red,  which  harmonise  as 
they  may  with  the  green  background. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  319 

countries  and  developed  immoderately,  leaving 
man,  by  comparison,  dwarfed  and  insignificant. 
Too  small,  he  appears  in  a  world  too  large.  But 
already  he  is  engaged  in  taking  a  revenge,  as  is 
shown  by  the  disappearance  of  the  yellow  fever 
from  the  marshes  of  Santos.  We  know  that  no 
other  town  has  been  more  cruelly  tried.  The 
simple  fact  of  drying  up  the  marshes  when 
the  harbour  was  building  sufficed  to  destroy  the 
scourge.  The  low  shores  of  Santos  Bay  are  still 
covered  with  salt  marshes  where  little  scarlet 
crabs  clamber  amongst  the  brushwood,  but  every 
trace  of  fresh  water  has  disappeared,  and  we 
know  that  it  is  only  in  fresh  water  that  the 
dangerous  mosquito  can  live. 

The  Orissa  moored  alongside  the  quay, 
amongst  the  large  cargo-boats  down  whose  yawn- 
ing holds  long  lines  of  porters  were  flinging 
bags  of  coffee.  Each  in  turn  advanced  with 
alert  step  along  the  swinging  plank,  and  as  soon 
as  the  man  in  front  of  him  had  deposited  his 
sack  the  same  movement  of  the  shoulders,  re- 
peated immediately  after  by  the  man  behind, 
gave  an  uninterrupted  cascade  of  yellow  bags,1 

1  A  sack  contains  60  kilogrammes. 


320          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

falling  from  the  docks,  where  were  heaped  the 
mountains  of  berries,  to  the  vast  bosom  of  the 
ship.  You,  who,  like  me,  have  heard  Creole  lazi- 
ness abused  a  thousand  times,  learn  that  the 
"  lazy  "  Brazilian  only  relaxes  this  hard  labour 
for  the  period  strictly  necessary  for  rest;  and 
not  even  in  the  hottest  part  of  the  summer, 
when  the  sun  is  at  its  fiercest,  does  he  indulge 
in  so  much  as  a  siesta.  In  Brazil,  indeed,  the 
siesta  is  unknown.  I  do  not  mention  the  fact 
in  order  to  reproach  Europeans.  My  only  in- 
tention is  to  do  justice  to  the  toilers  whose 
reputation  has  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
ignorant  and  foolish. 

To  return  to  Santos.  We  are  impelled  to- 
wards the  quay  in  the  first  place  by  a  strong 
desire  to  penetrate  to  the  very  heart  of  the  mar- 
vellous landscape,  and  scarcely  taking  the  time 
to  shake  the  French  hands  outstretched  to  us 
on  the  landing-stage,  we  set  out  for  the  beach 
of  Saint  Vincent.  Oh,  surprise!  A  French 
hotel,  all  white,  and  redolent  of  the  modern 
watering-place,  where  there  awaits  us  a  table 
decorated  with  orchids.  But  behold  a  tramway 
that  runs  to  the  end  of  the  beach!  In  these 


#70  DE  JANEIRO  321 

countries  to  be  in  a  tramcar  is  to  be  in  the  open 
air.  So  we  follow  the  wide  curve  of  silvery 
sand,  bordered  with  villas  whose  gardens  are 
enchanting  with  flowers  and  unexpected  plants, 
whilst  on  the  rocks  of  the  small  wooded  islets, 
a  cable's  length  from  the  shore,  high  waves  are 
breaking  storm ily  to  melt  softly  away  at  our 
feet.  The  first  impression  is  one  of  vigorous 
vegetation.  In  my  first  delightful  surprise  it 
seemed  this  could  never  be  surpassed.  We  stop 
at  Saint  Vincent,  and  then  return. 

According  to  the  legend,  it  was  in  the  little 
Bay  of  Saint  Vincent  that  Calval  with  his  war- 
riors and  monks  first  landed  on  these  shores, 
thus  discovering  Brazil,  which  it  only  remained 
to  conquer  and  convert.  Naturally  the  event  has 
been  commemorated  in  stone  and  bronze.  But 
Calval  himself  has  reminded  us  that,  if  we  would 
land  in  time,  we  must  first  catch  our  boat.  A 
hasty  lunch,  and  we  are  again  on  board  the 
Orissa,  which  to-morrow  at  sunrise  will  enter 
the  bewitching  Bay  of  Rio.  ^ 

The  entry  is  triumphal  in  this  inland  sea  en- 
circled by  high  mountains,  with  bristling  sum- 
mits like  rocks  in  battle  array,  but  relieved  by 


322  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

sunny  shores,  with  flowery  and  mysterious 
islands,  where  the  dazzling  lights  of  sky  and 
sea  are  blended  under  the  sensuous  sunlight  in 
the  clear  shade  of  lofty  leafage.  At  four  o'clock 
I  was  already  on  deck.  Haze,  a  fine  rain- 
there  will  be  nothing  visible  at  all.  Jagged 
rocks  emerge  from  the  mists,  which  all  at  once 
conceal  them  from  view.  We  are  moving 
through  a  cloud.  Two  forts,  the  Sao  Joao  and 
the  Santa  Cruz,  guard  the  entrance  for  the  sake 
of  appearances.  In  one  of  the  recent  revolu- 
tions they  bombarded  each  other  for  a  whole 
month  for  the  entertainment  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Kio,  who  used  to  come  out  to  the  quays  of 
an  afternoon  to  criticise  the  firing.  At  the  mo- 
ment they  are  in  a  spasm  of  peace.  Farther 
away,  we  are  shown  the  soft  outline  of  the 
Hinas-Geraes,  the  redoubtable  Dreadnought 
which — but  we  must  not  anticipate  the 
story.  Then  come  the  hideous  steeples  of 
Gothic  sugar-icing  which  the  Emperor  Dom 
Pedro  II.  felt  himself  called  to  place  on  the 
most  ridiculous  palace  that  ever  disgraced  a 
small  island.  We  stop  here,  for  the  quays  are 
not  sufficiently  extensive  for  us  to  draw  up  along- 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  323 

side.  Now  we  can  see  the  town,  with  its  spots 
of  bright  colour  on  the  misty  background  of 
swelling  green  hills.  We  have  reached  Rio  de 
Janeiro — the  January  River — so  called  by  the 
first  comers  from  Portugal,  who  took  the  bay 
for  a  river  as  the  Spaniards  had  done  for  the 
La  Plata  estuary.  Perhaps  in  January — that  is, 
in  the  height  of  the  summer — these  explorers 
had  like  us  the  excuse  of  a  fog,  for  tropical 
vegetation  is  only  possible  when  there  are  alter- 
nations of  rain  and  sunshine  such  as  the  climate 
of  Rio  abundantly  supplies.  It  is  the  rarest  of 
phenomena  to  see  the  horizon  perfectly  clear. 
The  distance  is  invariably  wreathed  with  a  light 
haze  which  softens  the  violence  of  the  colours. 
After  the  fierce  sun,  a  refreshing  rain ;  after  the 
shower,  the  joy  of  warm  light.  For  the  moment 
we  are  enjoying  a  fog.  A  bark  hails  us,  the 
national  flag  flying  at  her  bows.  She  brings  a 
delegation  from  the  Senate,  with  their  Speaker 
at  their  head,  come  to  offer  a  brotherly  welcome 
to  their  French  colleague.  Next  arrived  the 
brother  of  the  President  of  the  Republic,  who 
acts  as  his  chief  Secretary,  and  who  was  accom- 
panied by  an  officer  of  the  military  household 


324          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  the  Minister  of  the  Marine.  Many  compli- 
mentary speeches  were  made  as  usual,  and  a 
handful  of  brother  journalists  followed,  having 
among  them  M.  Guanabara,  editor  of  the  Im- 
prensa.  What  touched  me  most  was  the  way 
in  which  they  all  spoke  of  France  and  her  role 
of  high  civilisation  which  she  plays  in  the  world. 
The  President  of  the  Senate,  M.  Bocayuva,  whose 
son  is  just  now  Brazilian  charge  d'affaires  in 
Paris,  is  a  Republican  of  the  old  school  and 
unanimously  respected  by  all  parties.  One  real- 
ised as  one  listened  to  the  heartiness  with  which 
he  called  up  a  picture  of  the  moral  authority  of 
France  that  he  was  in  close  harmony  with  the 
traditions  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  this 
way  are  we  in  full  communion  of  mind  and 
heart  with  the  main  currents  of  thought  and 
feeling  which  are  carrying  the  nations  of  the 
world  towards  the  better  forms  of  justice  and 
liberty.  Here  in  Brazil,  too,  I  shall  find  once 
more  my  country,  as  I  quickly  discovered  in  the 
course  of  the  conversation  I  had  with  Sefior 
Bocayuva  during  our  drive  from  the  Farou  Quay 
to  the  handsome  house  which  the  Government  has 
done  me  the  honour  to  place  at  my  disposal. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  325 

The  sun  had  scattered  some  of  the  fog  by  the 
time  we  reached  the  Avenida  Central,  a  magnifi- 
cent highway  which  would  be  the  pride  of  any 
capital  city,1  and  as  the  motor-car  sped  swiftly 
down  it  or  along  that  equally  fine  promenade 
above  the  quays  jutting  into  the  bay,  whose  fea- 
tures now  grew  gradually  visible,  and  the  gay 
villas  with  their  frame  of  gorgeous  foliage,  we 
got  a  highly  attractive  vierw  of  the  town,  softly 
caressed  on  one  hand  by  the  luminous  waters 
with  their  ever-changing  horizons,  and  on  the 
other,  ever  threatened  by  invasion  of  the 
tropical  forest,  struggling  with  the  eagerness  of 
the  builder,  whose  efforts  are  ever  hemmed  in 
by  parks  and  gardens  and  trees  of  all  sorts  that 
spring  up  from  the  soil  at  haphazard,  evidences 
of  the  irresistible  force  of  life  that  is  here  in 
Nature.  Since  the  day  when  the  sea  brought 
man  to  the  country,  the  struggle  for  existence  has 
continued  between  the  encampment  of  the  bud- 
ding city  and  the  impenetrable  thickets  that  ever 
repelled  the  invader.  On  the  spurs,  the  ledges  of 


. 


1  Like   Florida   in   Buenos   Ayres,  Ouvidor  in  Old   Rio 
ill  remains,  notwithstanding  its  inadequate  dimensions, 
the  principal  business  thoroughfare  of  the  town. 


326  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  round  green  hills,  everywhere  the  painted 
cabin  has  obtained  a  footing  facing  the  bay, 
cutting  out  for  itself  with  the  axe  openings 
through  which  may  enter  the  daylight.  Below, 
the  town,  which  spreads  out  to  the  beach,  would 
appear  to  be  cut  up  by  the  farthest  buttresses 
of  the  mountain  range,  and,  pending  the  time 
when  they  will  be  tunnelled,  the  Flumineuse  1 
will  still  be  obliged  to  make  many  a  long  detour 
to  reach  any  given  point.  But  why  linger  in  the 
city,  except  to  mention  the  Municipal  Theatre, 
which  cost  far  too  many  millions,  and  the  pleas- 
ing Monroe  Palace  built  for  the  Pan-American 
Congress?  Even  the  parks,  whose  extraordi- 
nary trees  draw  loud  exclamations  of  surprise 
from  us  every  minute,  cannot  compete  in  inter- 
est with  the  forest.  We  can  never  get  tired, 
however,  of  the  wondrous  promenade  on  the 
quays,  seven  kilometres  in  length,  and  presently 
to  be  doubled.  Following  the  graceful  lines  of 
the  sea  front,  with  its  array  of  flowers,  whence 
at  every  moment  we  get  a  new  view  of  the  bay, 

1  The  Flumineuse  is  the  native  of  Rio.  There  is  no 
excuse  for  people  who,  knowing  that  there  is  no  river  in 
Rio,  yet  insist  on  being  named  after  a  stream  (ftumen) 
that  is  non-existent. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  327 

we  drink  in  the  ineffable  light  that  makes 
the  sea  palpitate  and  the  mountain  leap  in  a 
single  voluptuous  rhythm.  In  the  distance  a 
Avhite  line,  Nicterchy,  the  capital  of  the  State 
of  Rio  (40,000  inhabitants) ;  at  the  entrance  of 
the  bay  the  tall  cone  of  granite  known  as  the 
"  sugar-loaf  " ;  then  the  green  islets,  the  rocks, 
the  mountains  that  melt  in  the  blue  gauze  of 
the  horizon,  and  if  you  turn  round,  the  high 
"  Corcovado,"  hovering  over  the  city,  from 
whose  summit  the  whole  expanse  of  the  bay 
will  be  revealed  to  us — rapidly  changing  scenery 
whose  excess  of  living  quality  defies  pen  or  pen- 
cil. The  infinite  variety  of  the  Rio  Bay  (140 
kilometres  in  extent1)  with  all  its  hidden  in- 
dentations in  which  lie  screened  from  view  so 
many  richly  wooded  shores,  where  new  forests 
are  in  process  of  formation,  is  beyond  all  pos- 
sibility of  description.  I  have  said  enough:  I 
have  seen  it,  and  my  dazzled  eyes  will  not  soon 
forget  the  picture. 

My  first  visit  was,  of  course,  to  the  President 


1  The  Rio  harbour,  built  by  the  English  for  a  French 
company,  represented  in  1907  eight  millions  tonnage  en- 
tered and  cleared. 


328          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  the  Republic,  who  was  about  to  yield  his  place 
to  Marshal  Hermes  da  Fonseca,  whose  visit  to 
Lisbon,  planned  in  all  ignorance,  was  destined 
to  coincide  with  the  Portuguese  Eevolution.  A 
warm  reception  from  Seilor  Nilo  Peganha,  who 
showed  me  round  his  fine  park,  where  royal 
palms  which  are  one  of  the  glories  of  Eio  de 
Janeiro  form  a  gorgeous  avenue  down  to  the 
very  shores  of  the  bay.  The  Baron  de  Bio 
Branco  (a  family  ennobled  under  the  Empire),1 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  since  1902,  was  at 
one  time  Consul-General  in  Paris.  He  knew 
many  of  our  public  men  and  received  me  with 
the  cordial  simplicity  of  a  friend.  "  The  Baron," 
as  he  is  commonly  designated,  enjoys  sovereign 
authority  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  ex- 
ternal policy  of  the  country.  Friends  and  foes 
unite  to  leave  him  a  free  field  in  this  respect, 
and  all  unite,  too,  in  praise  of  his  remarkable 
talents  as  diplomat.  He  does  not  conceal  the  fact 

1  The  father  of  Baron  de  Rio  Branco,  Minister  under 
the  Emperor  Dom  Pedro  II.,  is  the  author  of  the  Law 
of  the  Venire  Libre,  which  emancipated  all  slaves  to  be 
born  in  the  future.  In  remembrance  of  this  measure, 
which  preceded  the  abolition  of  slavery,  a  statue  has  been 
raised  to  him  in  one  of  the  Rio  parks. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  329 

that  his  sympathies  are  with  France,  though  his 
admiration  is  reserved  for  Germany.  The  Ger- 
man Military  Mission  to  Brazil  was  his  idea,  but 
it  came  to  nothing.  Some  one  in  his  immediate 
entourage  told  me  he  considers  the  German 
instructor  to  be  specially  capable  of  instill- 
ing into  Brazilian  troops  the  sense  of  military 
duty.  Too  many  instances  of  insubordination — 
some  very  serious — have  indeed  shown  the  ur- 
gent necessity  for  such  teaching.  But  can  Seiior 
de  Rio  Branco  really  think  it  possible  to  instil 
into  the  mind  and  manners  of  a  democracy  the 
doctrine  of  absolutism  in  military  duty  such  as 
William  II.  has  laid  it  down  in  repeated  public 
utterances?  If  such  absurd  stress  had  not  been 
laid  upon  the  supposed  rivalry  between  the 
States  of  Saint  Paul  and  Rio  de  Janeiro,  I  believe 
that  Baron  de  Rio  Branco  must  have  admitted 
like  every  one  else  the  merits  of  our  admirable 
French  Military  Mission  to  Saint  Paul,  of  which  I 
shall  have  occasion  presently  to  speak  again.  If  I 
may  speak  freely,  I  do  not  consider  it  diplomatic 
for  France  to  leave  so- import  ant  a  post  as  Rio 
for  more  than  one  year  in  the  hands  of  a  simple 
charge  d'affaires,  no  matter  how  experienced. 


J 


330          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Whatever  happens,  two  features  in  the  Brazil- 
ian character  will  to  my  thinking  remain  pre- 
dominant. They  are  democratic  idealism  and  a 
consequent  innate  taste  for  French  culture. 
This  was  brought  powerfully  home  to  me  at  the 
official  reception  with  which  I  was  honoured  by 
the  Senate.  This  demonstration  was  carried  by 
a  vote  that  was  almost  unanimous,  there  being 
only  one  against.1  In  a  public  sitting,  the 
speaker  chosen  for  the  occasion  seated  me  on 
his  right  hand  and  then  made  in  French  a  noble 
speech,  in  which  after  the  usual  compliments  he 
declared  that  his  country  also  upheld  the  glori- 
ous traditions  of  the  French  Revolution.  Then 
a  senator  from  the  Amazon,  Seiior  Georges  de 
Moraes,  got  up  to  speak,  and,  also  in  French, 
delivered  an  admirable  harangue  on  the  role  of 
French  culture  in  the  general  evolution  of  civil- 
ised society  towards  social  justice  and  liberty. 
This  oratorical  effort  was  frequently  interrupted 
by  the  unanimous  applause  of  an  audience  quick 
to  grasp  the  crisp  outlines  of  our  splendid  dog- 
mas of  Latin  idealism.  This  magnificent  homage 
to  my  great  country,  coming  from  the  highest 

1  The  vote  of  a  senator  belonging  to  the  Church  party. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  331 

representatives  of  the  noble  Brazilian  democracy, 
itself  invariably  attuned  to  the  realisation  of 
humanitarian  justice,  touched  me  profoundly, 
and  I  could  but  say  how  great  was  my  joy  to 
hear  my  nation  spoken  of  with  the  respect  and 
gratitude  due  to  the  grandeur  of  its  action  on 
the  world.  I  wished  I  had  at  my  disposal  the 
same  eloquence  to  express,  in  my  turn,  the  deep 
gratitude  I  felt  for  this  movement  towards 
France,  whose  history  has,  by  some  fate,  been 
so  grievously  checkered  by  many  painful  con- 
flicts. What  encouragement  there  is  for  us  in 
this  brilliant  demonstration  of  disinterested 
cordiality!  What  hopes  for  the  future  may  be 
founded  on  this  bond  of  union  between  peoples 
working  equally  in  the  cause  of  democracy,  and 
towards  a  great  and  universal  peace  based  on 
the  rights  of  man  in  all  civilised  continents!  I 
endeavoured  to  make  this  clear,  and  the  simple 
words  of  brotherly  friendliness  that  sprang  to 
my  lips  roused  unanimous  applause  from  the 
benches  of  the  august  assembly.  I  wish  I  could 
have  done  better.  I  trust  my  good  intentions 
will  speak  for  me.  Never  did  I  feel  so  strongly 
the  influence  of  the  loftiness  of  human  nobility 


332          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

and  its  power  to  raise  our  minds  to  the  highest 
aspirations  after  justice  and  liberty.  Before 
bringing  the  sitting  to  an  end  the  President 
called  for  three  cheers  for  France,  for  President 
Fallieres,  and  for  the  guest  of  the  Senate.  And 
all  the  assembly  on  their  feet,  with  the  gravity 
of  suppressed  emotion,  gave  three  times  the  cry 
of  "  Vive  la  France!  "  amid  the  applause  of  the 
spectators. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  I  cannot  speak  of  Brazil 
in  the  way  I  should  like.  I  was  there  only  three 
weeks,  just  long  enough  to  recognise  how  great 
an  interest  is  attached  to  all  the  developments 
of  this  marvellous  land  in  the  different  depart- 
ments of  human  intellectual  and  physical  ac- 
tivity, but  far  too  short  a  time  to  warrant  any 
opinion  of  the  prominent  men  I  met  there,  or 
on  the  multiple  questions  which  are  raised  by 
the  political  and  social  progress  of  this  demo- 
cracy. I  was  able  to  converse  with  only  a  few 
politicians,  and  in  my  anxiety  to  see  everything, 
I  touched  on  too  many  subjects  in  too  brief  a 
space  to  have  succeeded  in  assimilating  the  very 
complex  impressions  which  might  have  enabled 
me  to  speak  with  some  degree  of  authority.  I 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  333 

can  therefore  only  offer  to  the  public  a  few  rapid 
impressions  for  which  I  claim  only  the  merit 
of  sincerity. 

When  I  said  that  the  ancestor  of  my  friend 
Senor  Acines  de  Mello  had  given  a  performance 
of  Voltaire's  tragedies  in  his  home,  1400  kilo- 
metres from  the  coast,  in  1780,  it  sufficed  to 
show  that  neither  general  civilisation  nor  French 
culture  is  a  new  thing  in  Brazil.  The  Republic 
of  Brazil  is  an  "  ancient "  Latin  community 
which  can  show  titles  of  intellectual  nobility 
and  lofty  social  ambitions.  Its  economic  de- 
velopment, if  less  sudden  in  origin  than  that 
of  the  Argentine,  is  none  the  less  remarkable 
in  all  respects  and  holds  out  no  less  hopes  for 
the  future.  Coffge,  india-rubber,  timber, 


cotton,  rice,  and  mines  are^arSourceTof  wealth 
that  the  future  will  reveal.  There  are  immense 
stretches  of  country  that  are  and  must  long 
remain  unexplored.  The  effort  of  a  fine  race 
has  too  long  been  held  in  check  by  slavery,  but 
its  incessant  activity  has  already  produced  as- 
tonishing results.  For  numerous  reasons,  one 
of  the  principal  being  the  domination  of  theo- 
cracy, neither  Spain  nor  Portugal  has  up  to  the 


334          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

present  been  able  to  give  in  modern  Europe  the 
full  measure  of  their  force.  In  South  America 
they  are  making  ready  a  magnificent  revenge, 
which,  however,  will  not,  I  hope,  prevent  their 
taking  and  keeping  in  Europe  the  position  that 
is  their  due.  If  I  may  venture  to  make  a  hasty 
judgment  from  what  I  was  able  to  see,  the  dis- 
tinctive traits  in  this  people  would  appear  to  be 
an  irresistible  force  of  impetuosity  in  an  invari- 
ably gracious  guise,  and  every  talent  necessary 
to  insure  the  fulfilment  of  their  destiny.  I  have 
spoken  of  the  crossing  of  the  race  in  the  Argen- 
tine, where  the  black  element  has  been  re-ab- 
sorbed. It  is  not  the  same  in  Brazil,  where  at 
every  step  one  comes  across  the  African  half- 
breed  amongst  the  masses.  The  Portuguese 
woman  and  the  negro  seem  to  get  on  well  to- 
gether, as  is  evidenced  by  the  innumerable 
young  half-breeds  to  be  seen  in  their  serene 
bronze  nudity  at  the  doors  of  the  cabins.  It 
is  difficult  to  estimate  the  general  results  of  this 
mixture.  The  negro  has  the  reputation  of  be- 
ing idle,  childlike,  and  kind  except  in  his  out- 
bursts of  rage.  As  I  have  said  before,  the  vice 
>f  laziness  cannot  be  imputed  to  the  I&razilian. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  335 

It  may  be  that  African  blood  is  partly  respon- 
sible for  the  demonstrations  of  emotional  im- 
pressionability and  unexpected  violence  that 
sometimes  take  hold  of  the  populace.  I  dare 
not  carry  this  argument  too  far.  Yet,  to  my 
mind,  the  mutiny  of  the  crews  of  the  Saint  Paul 
and  Hinas-Geraes,  as  of  the  troops  of  marines 
in  barracks  in  the  island  of  Las  Cobras,  was 
largely  due  to  the  excitable  African  blood.  The 
"  governing  classes  "  seem  untouched  by  this  in- 
fusion of  blood.  But  for  some  reason  or  other, 
their  virtues  and  their  defects  seem  remarkably 
well  adapted  to  the  corresponding  characteristics 
of  the  masses.  Idealists  with  a  cult  for  intel- 
lectuality, equally  ready  for  higher  culture  as 
for  the  hard  labour  without  which  nothing  is 
ever  achieved,  gentle  and  violent  by  turns,  or 
even  simultaneously — the  variable  sons  of  this 
soil,  less  disunited,  however,  than  one  might  sup- 
pose, may  invoke  in  their  favour  with  a  just 
pride  a  work  already  grandiose  though  but  a 
feeble  embryo  by  comparison  with  what  it  must 
in  time  become. 

In  every  department  of  modern  activity  Brazil 
need  have  no  fear  of  the  criticism  of  Europe,  for 


336          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

she  possesses  men  comparable  with  any  of  our 
chiefs  of  industry.  Even  a  short  visit  suffices 
to  show  that  there  is  no  lack  of  either  intellectual 
quality  or  business  method.  But  the  field  is  so 
vast  that  it  would  need  innumerable  legions  to 
fully  occupy  it.  Considered  in  this  light,  every 
effort  appears  totally  inadequate  in  comparison 
with  its  immense  possibilities.  Admirable  la- 
bourers they  are.  none  the  less,  hard  at  work, 
in  their  modesty  and  perseverance,  with  no  wish 
to  spare  themselves,  and  asking  nothing  from 
the  struggle  with  inanimate  Nature  but  ground 
for  fresh  hope.  Does  this  imply  that  in  certain 
directions  of  public  action  there  is  no  wavering 
visible?  How  happy  would  modern  society  be 
if  this  could  be  said  only  of  Brazil !  Politicians 
are  never  in  very  high  favour  with  the  intel- 
lectuals of  a  country.  I  will  say  nothing  against 
either  the  one  or  the  other.  The  celebrated  re- 
tort :  " '  Nothing '  is  a  wide  field :  reign  there !  " 
may  with  some  slight  modification  be  applied 
to  the  most  gifted  of  men  when  they  persist  in 
riding  the  eternal  hobby  of  the  ideal  heedless  of 
earthly  conditions.  Some  of  the  problems  with 
which  humanity  has  wrestled  for  centuries  have 


RIO  BE  JANEIRO  337 

been  solved  by  a  single  illuminating  word  uttered 
in  calm  authority  by  men  who  would  not  have 
shone  in,  roles  that  call  for  a  gradual  develop- 
ment of  character.  Politicians,  on  the  other 
hand,  whatever  their  shortcomings — and  I 
must  acknowledge  that,  in  a  moment  of  trial, 
they  are  frequently  disappointing — have  yet  this 
merit,  that  they  play  the  labourer's  part.  They 
have  to  handle  every  kind  of  problem,  not  to 
find  a  graceful  solution  that  will  delight  the 
intellectuals,  but  to  extract  therefrom  certain 
conditions  of  private  and  public  life  which  ac- 
cording to  events  may  make  the  fortune  or 
misfortune  of  the  public.  It  may  be  that  in 
Brazil  they  are  too  much  attached  to  the  higher 
culture  always  to  give  sufficient  consideration 
to  the  common  necessities  of  our  daily  life.  It 
may  be  that  they  are  too  intrinsically  Latin  al- 
ways to  be  able  to  resist  the  temptation  of  rush- 
ing events.  These  defects,  if  they  really  exist, 
are  being  cured.  The  politicians  with  whom  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  exchanging  views,  both  at 
Saint  Paul  and  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  would  bear 
comparison,  whether  as  regards  culture  or  sys- 
tematic firmness  in  action,  with  any  in  the 


338          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

world.  An  aristocracy  had  grown  up  around 
the  person  of  the  Emperor,  the  last  remnants 
of  which  are  now  being  fast  submerged  in  the 
current  of  democracy.  I  shall  mention  no 
names,  for  I  do  not  want  these  hasty  notes  to 
bear  the  smallest  resemblance  to  a  distribution 
of  prizes.  Let  me  only  mention  one  case — a  very 
rare  one  in  Latin  nations — of  a  leader  who  is 
universally  obeyed.  I  have  no  doubt  that  Senor 
Pinhero  Machado  possesses  all  the  qualities  of 
a  leader  deft  in  handling  men,  but  it  is  less  his 
talents  that  astonish  me  than  his  self-abnegation, 
Avhich  has  brought  into  line  so  many  politicians 
of  Latin  temperament. 

The  more  momentous  political  questions  of  the 
day  relate  to  organisation,  there  being  no  room 
foirany  serious  attacks  on  principles  that  have 
been  proclaimed  and  incorporated  in  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Republic.  It  is  in  practice  that 
difficulties  are  apt  to  occur.  The  Empire  showed 
a  marked  tendency  towards  centralisation.1  The 
Republic,  being,  like  the  United  States,  a  federa- 
tion of  States,  is  based  on  the  theory  ,oj_pure 

1  The  Emperor  Dom  Pedro  II.  is  kindly  remembered. 
Every  one  speaks  of  him  with  respectful  sympathy. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  339 

autonomy.  But  if  the  autonomy  of  these  States 
is  to  be  more  than  a  vain  word,  some  way  must 
be  found  of  constituting  in  each  province  of  a 
territory  which  is  eighteen  times  as  large  as 
France,  and  contains  twenty  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants unequally  scattered  over  it,  a  sufficient 
force  of  intelligent  determination  to  create  a 
select  governing  body  which  will  express  the 
intellectual  and  moral  capacity  in  the  masses; 
otherwise  democracy  becomes  only  tyranny  dis- 
guised. In  some  States,  notably  in  that  of  Saint 
Paul,  there  is  obviously  a  superabundance  of 
energy.  In  others  there  is  not  enough.  Time 
and  community  of  effort  can  alone  remedy 
this  condition  of  affairs.  Meantime,  the  bal- 
ance is  destroyed,  and  the  Constitution  en- 
joys principally  a  theoretic  authority.  It 
is  inevitable  that  the  result  should  be  some 
confusion  in  Press 1  and  Parliament,  although 
the  strife  is  rather  one  of  dogma  than  of 

1  The  Rio  press  is  not  so  fully  equipped  for  news  items 
as  the  European  or  American  papers,  but  it  is  literary 
in  tone  and  occupies  a  worthy  place  in  the  Corporation. 
The  largest  circulation  is  claimed  by  El  Commercio.  The 
Imprenso,  whose  editor  is  Alcindo  Guanabara,  Member 
of  the  Brazilian  Academy  and  deputy,  is,  with  El  Pais,  one 
of  the  most  important  party  sheets. 


340  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

action,  and  lies  principally  between  Federals 
and  Unionists. 

Religious  questions  are  practically  outside  the 
public  domain.  The  separation  of  Church  and 
State  in  Brazil  goes  with  a  papal  nuncio,  by 
means  of  whom  South  American  innocence  sup- 
poses the  fact  adds  a  distinction  which  should 
dazzle  the  outer  world.  I  fancied  that  some  of 
the  public  men  viewed  the  activity  of  the  reli- 
gious Orders  with  apprehension,  but  I  will  say 
J  nothing  further  on  the  point. 

Laws  for  the  protection  of  agricultural  and 
industrial  workers  are  here  unknown.  The  Bra- 
zilian Republic  will  want  to  place  itself  on  an 
equality  with  other  civilised  countries  on  this 
head  as  soon  as  possible,  for  already  a  number 
of  colonists  in  lands  where  the  administration 
has  shown  itself  slow  to  take  action  have  pro- 
tested so  loudly  against  the  grave  abuses  that 
result  that  some  Latin  countries  have  been 
obliged  to  forbid  emigration  to  Brazil.  Take 
heed  lest  the  States  invoke  their  sovereign  rights, 
which  would  be  tantamount  to  declaring  the  cen- 
tral authority  void.  This  throws  light  on  the  ob- 
stacle which  now  confronts  progress  on  these 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  341 

vital  questions — namely,  the  lack  of  an  adequate 
Constitution  in  some  of  the  States  for  the  work 
of  self-government,  and  of  balance  between  those 
which  have  already  a  highly  perfected  civilisa- 
tion and  the  districts  theoretically  on  a  footing 
of  equality,  but  whose  black  or  Indian  popula- 
tion can  only  permit  of  a  nominal  democracy 
stained  by  those  irresponsible  outbursts  which 
characterise  primitive  humanity. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  same  remarks  could 
apply  to  public  instruction.  There  is  in  certain 
StategH^as^  for  instance,  Saint  Paul — a  magnifi- 
cent groupof  schools^  which  respond  to  the  gen- 
eral consciousness  of  a  pressing  need  for  the 
spread  of  higher  education ;  in  other  parts  there 
is  a  lamentable  deficiency.1 

It  was,  moreover,  inevitable  that  the  Federal 

1  We  must  do  justice  to  the  effort  made  by  the  Brazilian 
Government  to  extend  education.  According  to  an  article 
in  their  Constitution,  the  "  unlettered  cannot  vote,"  but  I 
will  not  swear  that  the  rule  is  severely  applied.  In  each 
State  the  primary  schools  are  supported  by  the  muni- 
cipalities and  States  themselves,  as  are  also  the  training 
colleges.  There  are  too  many  calls  on  the  strength  of 
the  youth  of  a  new  country  for  secondary  education  to 
be  very  enthusiastically  welcomed.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  different  institutions  of  higher  education  attract  the 
rising  talent  of  the  land. 


342          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Government  itself  should  suffer  from  the  unequal 
distribution  of  its  military  effectives.  The  State 
of  Saint  Paul  is  justly  proud  of  an  armed  force 
which  it  owes  to  French  instructors.  I  need  not 
criticise  the  Federal  army,  which  is  officered  by 
men  of  fine  public  spirit;  but  all  agree  that  the 
force  needs  reorganising.  There  is  no  question, 
of  course,  of  preparing  for  war;  but  the  public 
interest  requires  that  a  military  force  should 
be  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government,  capable  of 
enforcing  obedience  to  the  laws.  To  me  it  seems 
more  urgent  than  the  acquisition  of  Dread- 
noughts, which  swallowed  up  millions  of  money 
and  gave  nothing  but  mutiny  in  return.  Naval 
discipline  necessarily  suffered  by  the  amnesty 
imposed  by  men  who  had  just  massacred  their 
officers.  As  we  know,  this  deplorable  incident 
was  followed  by  a  mutiny  amongst  the  marines 
stationed  in  the  island  of  Las  Cobras,  which, 
however,  for  once,  was  severely  put  down.  I 
inspected  this  body  of  troops  at  the  manoeuvres 
arranged  for  my  visit.  The  young  officers  gave 
me  an  excellent  impression,  and  the  barracks 
certainly  left  nothing  to  be  desired;  but  there 
were  far  too  many  coloured  men  in  the  ranks. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  343 

Who  can  tell  the  effect  produced  on  these  im- 
pulsive natures  by  the  capitulation  of  the  public 
governing  body  before  a  military  rebellion  ?  The 
rebels  cruelly  expiated  the  faults  of  others  by 
adding  thereto  their  own. 

As  regards  municipal  administration,  the 
greatest  services  have  been  rendered  to  the  city 
by  the  Prefect,  who  interests  himself  especially 
in  his  schools  amongst  a  long  list  of  other  duties. 
But  the  man  who  deserves  the  most  from  his 
country  is  Dr.  Oswaldo  jCrug^  who  has  devoted 
himself  to  the  improvement  of  the  sanitary  con- 
dition of  the  city  and  has  instituted  a  service 
of  sanitary  police  stationed  at  every  point  of 
contamination,  and  who,  by  dint  of  unwearying 
labour,  has  freed  Rio  of  yellow  fever.  The  Gov- 
ernment has  lent  him  generous  pecuniary  assist- 
ance in  his  work,  but  what  is  money  without 
the  man's  perseverance  and  zeal?  As  we  know, 
the  disease  is  propagated  by  the  sting  of  the 
female  mosquito  (the  Stegomya  calopus)  just 
before  the  egg-laying  season.  In  1903  Dr.  Os- 
waldo  Cruz,  having  obtained  from  Congress  all 
the  necessary  powers,  began  his  fight  with  the 
fearful  scourge.  A  body  of  sanitary  police, 


344  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

organised  by  himself,  was  charged  with  the  mis- 
sion of  getting  rid  of  all  stagnant  water  in  the 
streets,  houses,  courtyards,  gardens,  roofs,  gut- 
ters, and  sewers,  and  from  all  other  spots  where 
the  larvae  of  the  stegomya  could  exist.  In  this 
he  found  material  assistance  in  the  scheme  of 
public  improvements  then  being  carried  out  in 
the  city — the  building  of  the  quays,1  the  drainage 
of  marshy  land,  destruction  of  insanitary  houses, 
cutting  of  new  avenues,  etc.  In  the  course  of 
the  first  year  of  these  sanitary  works  there  were 
550  deaths  from  yellow  fever;  in  the  following 
year  the  number  fell  to  forty-eight,  and  for  the 
last  three  years  not  a  single  case  has  been 
recorded.  Needless  to  say,  the  sanitary  police 
brigade  are  continuing  their  duties,  and  in  all 
parts  of  the  city  and  in  all  the  houses  every 
trace  of  standing  water  is  swept  away.  This 
constitutes  a  never-ending  tyranny;  but  the  re- 
sult is  the  complete  purification  of  a  city  which 
was  once  a  den  of  pestilence,  and  is  now  one 
of  the  loveliest  ornaments  of  the  planet ! 

1  At  Santos,  one  of  the  most  severely  tried,  yellow  fever 
was  entirely  stamped  out  by  the  building  of  the  quays, 
which  drained  off  the  marshes. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  345 

Dr.  Oswaldo  Cruz  was  making  ready  to  go 
to  the  Amazon,  which  is  in  a  specially  whole- 
some condition;  he  had  already  fulfilled  a  mis- 
sion there  last  year.  He  will  now  complete  the 
task  of  general  sanitation  already  started,  for 
which  the  Congress  has  furnished  the  necessary 
funds.  This,  perhaps,  is  the  most  important  part 
of  his  project,  for  it  will  throw  open  an  immense 
region  of  unlimited  productiveness  to  every  sort 
of  civilised  activity. 

Such  a  work  would  suffice  to  the  glory  of  any 
one  life,  but  Dr.  Oswaldo  Cruz  is  one  of  those 
men  who  are  capable  of  continuing  indefinitely 
their  labours.  The  ex-pupil  of  the  Pasteur  In- 
stitute was  anxious  to  endow  his  country  with 
a  similiar  school  of  therapeutics  and  prophylaxy. 
In  a  picturesque  loop  of  the  bay  there  stood  a 
small  building  which  was  used  by  the  engineer 
of  the  prefecture  in  the  burning  of  rubbish.  Dr. 
Oswaldo  Cruz  has  transformed  it  into  the  In- 
stitut  Manguinhos  (Institute  of  Experimental 
Medicine),  with  the  special  mission  to  study  in- 
fectious and  parasitic  diseases  in  men  and  ani- 
mals, as  well  as  hygiene,  and  to  prepare  the 
different  serums  which  modern  therapeutics  has 


346          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

adopted.  It  was  hardly  necessary,  perhaps,  to 
add  all  the  fioritura  of  Moorish  architecture  to 
a  building  intended  for  studies  that  call  for  no 
flourish  of  trumpets;  still,  there  is  something 
about  these  fanciful  lines  which  harmonises 
agreeably  enough  with  the  natural  arabesques 
of  the  prodigal  learage.  The  institute  aims  at 
supreme  perfection,  and  supplies  having  been  fur- 
nished without  stint,  the  results  place  it  beyond 
comparison.  Vast  laboratories,  comfortable 
studies,  fitted  up  with  all  the  latest  appliances; 
operating-rooms  for  animals,  with  the  most  com- 
plete surgical  outfits,  disinfecting-rooms,  vacuum 
machinery;  lifts  everywhere,  gas,  electricity, 
pipes  for  water  and  for  compressed  air;  library 
and  magazine-room,  with  all  foreign  periodicals 
properly  classified;  separate  buildings  for  the 
study  of  infectious  diseases  and  the  preparation 
of  the  corresponding  serum.  Each  building  has 
its  own  stable,  so  constructed  as  to  be  readily 
sterilised,  with  boxes  permitting  a  close  watch 
over  the  animal  as  well  as  feeding  him  without 
opening  the  door;  and  its  own  hall  for  experi- 
ments and  laboratory,  a  furnace  to  destroy  all 
refuse,  electric  generating  engines,  etc. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  347 

A  group  of  young  Brazilian  savants  were  at 
work  under  the  guidance  of  Dr.  Oswaldo  Cruz 
and  two  German  bacteriologists.  One  of  them, 
Dr.  Chagas,  a  Brazilian,  is  well  known  in  the 
world  of  science  for  his  studies  in  bacteriology 
and  parasitology.  There  is  an  immense  field 
open,  for  tropical  diseases  are  still  uncharted, 
whilst  in  the  field  of  marasitic  diseases  of  men 
and  animals  there  is  fully  as  much  to  learn. 

The  Memoir es  de  I'lnstitut  de  Manguinhos  are 
published  in  Portuguese  and  in  German.  I  was 
struck  by  the  effort  that  the  Germans  are  making 
to  draw  towards  themselves  the  medical  corps 
of  the  country.  The  heads  of  the  laboratories 
and  their  assistants  had  all  been  brought  from 
Germany,  and  their  scientific  method  had  been 
cordially  accepted.  At  the  Berlin  Exhibition  a 
first  prize  had  justly  been  awarded  to  the  Man- 
guinhos Institute.  Of  late  years  two  French 
savants,  MM.  Marchoux  and  Salimboni,  of  the 
Pasteur  Institute,  have  been  charged  by  the 
Brazilian  Government  with  a  mission  to  study 
yellow  fever.  To-day  two  of  our  army  veter- 
inaries  are  investigating  the  morve  at  Rio. 

But  it  is  time  to  leave  the  abode  of  the  Mos- 


348  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

quito  Killer  (mata  mosquitos),  as  Dr.  Cruz  is 
nicknamed.  The  sun  is  mounting  above  the 
horizon.  In  the  enchanting  light  of  the  bay 
there  are  now  revealed  to  our  gaze  the  serrated 
outlines  of  the  soft  shores  where  the  intensely 
profuse  vegetation  runs  riot,  the  glowing  masses 
of  bare  rock  which  rise  high  above  the  water 
to  meet  the  sun  against  the  filmy  background 
of  the  distant  mountains,  and,  lastly,  the  islands 
with  their  rippling  masses  of  rich  verdure,  which 
spring  skywards  like  an  offering  from  the  sea. 

Impossible  to  pass  the   Island  Viana  by   in 
silence.      On    the    neighbouring    island    Senor 

L ,  the  descendant  of  a  French  family,  has 

set  up  his  dockyards  for  naval  construction, 
which  he  took  us  to  see  with  a  modesty  that 
was  not  without  a  point  of  legitimate  pride.  I 
shall  not  describe  what  is  well  known.  There 
was  a  surprise  in  store  for  us,  however,  in  the 
form  of  a  colony  of  Japanese  labourers  working 
in  wood  and  metal,  and  learning  in  this  distant 
land  a  trade  to  be  practised  later  in  their  own. 
Most  diligent  of  workmen,  remarkable  by  their 
gravity  and  steady  application.  Amongst  them, 
tool  in  hand,  one  of  those  small  boys  whose 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  349 

oblique  eyes  we  have  learned  to  know  by  heart 
through  the  picture-albums  of  Nippon;  dumb, 
motionless,  the  whole  of  his  mind  concentrated 
with  intense  force  on  the  work  in  hand,  this 
child  of  some  ten  years  is  taking  a  demonstra- 
tion lesson  in  technical  work  that,  as  you  see 
by  his  attitude,  he  is  determined  to  profit  by.  I 
would  rather  have  seen  these  little  chaps  play- 
ing at  ball.  I  seem  to  see  them  as  they  show 
themselves  to  us,  gathering  up  all  their  powers, 
even  at  the  threshold  of  life,  in  order  to  take 
possession  of  the  future.  I  was  told  that  in  the 
evening  schools  they  accomplish  wonders. 

The  day's  work  ended,  Seiior  L—  -  crossed 
a  short  arm  of  the  sea  and  landed  in  his  own 
island  of  Viana,  where  he  has  laid  out  a  large 
park  which  at  the  same  time  satisfies  his  love 
of  the  beautiful  and  of  comfort.  Each  member 
of  the  family  has  a  house  to  him-  or  herself— 
and  what  a  house! — English,  or  perhaps  Ameri- 
can in  style,  with  the  finest  supply  of  light  and 
air  provided  by  great  bay  windows  opening  upon 
that  immense  expanse  of  sea  framed  in  be- 
flowered  shores  and  broken  by  high  blue  peaks 
which  lose  themselves  in  the  sky.  Kitchen- 


350          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

gardens,  flowery  meadows,  lawns,  groves,  woods 
—there  is  nothing  wanting,  and  each  in  turn  is 
planted  in  the  best  possible  way  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  splendours  of  the  views.  And  to 
make  Viana  a  world  in  itself,  all  the  loveliest 
birds  of  Brazil  are  to  be  found  in  this  earthly 
paradise;  and  the  supreme  magnificence  of  the 
Brazilian  types  of  winged  and  feathered  crea- 
tures repays  in  beauty  what  man's  munificent 
generosity  daily  distributes.  Here  within  reach 
of  my  hand  a  large  yellow  bird  is  pouring  out 
its  mad  and  merry  song,  while  two  toucans,  with 
their  exaggerated  beaks,  light  up  with  gold  and 
clear  sapphire  hues  the  sober  green  of  the  thicket. 
I  pretend  to  try  to  catch  them ;  they  barely  feign 
a  retreat  Eden  before  the  Fall!  I  congratu- 
late Senor  L on  the  artistic  way  in  which 

he  spends  the  money  he  succeeded  in  making  in 
business — two  talents  that  are  seldom  found 
together. 

"  It  is  all  very  well,"  he  murmured  in  reply, 
"  but  you  see  what  happens.  My  wife  prefers 
Paris,  and  my  children,  who  might  have  found 
here,  at  twenty  minutes'  run  from  Rio,  a  worthy 
occupation  for  their  time,  have  elected  to  try 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO  351 

their  fate  in  the  unknown.  My  eldest  son  is  in 
New  York.  Ha  parole!  I  believe  he  sells  seltzer- 
water  there,  or  something  of  the  sort.  What  do 
you  think  of  that?  " 

I  said  nothing.  But  I  thought  to  myself  that 
in  the  pursuit  of  happiness  not  even  the  most 
favoured  escape  some  setbacks. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

•    i 

BRAZILIAN    SOCIETY   AND   SCENERY 


HAVE  already  jotted  down  a  few 
characteristics  that  struck  me  in 
the  people  of  Brazil,  and  these 
will  form  a  sort  of  prelude  to 
what  I  am  now  about  to  say.  For  a  traveller 
who  claims  to  convey  only  first-hand  informa- 
tion, the  difficulty,  of  course,  is  to  make  any 
definite  statements  when  aware  that  his  obser- 
vations were  all  too  hasty  and  brief  to  warrant 
generalities, 

Brazilian  society  is  very  different  from  that 
of  the  Argentine,  its  elements  being  more  dis- 
tinct and  more  complex,  while  equally  Euro- 
pean in  trend,  and  with  the  same  immutably 
American  base;  the  strain  of  French  culture  is 
more  attenuated,  the  impulsive  temperament 
more  apparent,  but  for  steady  perseverance  and 
capacity  for  hard  work  the  Brazilians  cannot  be 

352 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  353 

surpassed.  In  criticising  the  social  conditions 
in  Brazil,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
abolition  of  slavery  dates  only  twenty  years 
back.  I  do  not  think  the  slave-owner  was  sys- 
tematically cruel,  but  slavery  does  not  precisely 
rest  on  any  inducement  to  kindliness.  Certain 
buildings  that  I  came  across  and  the  explanation 
of  their  use  that  was  given  to  me  showed  plainly 
enough,  what  we  already  knew,  that  the  blacks 
were  treated  like  cattle,  with  just  as  much  con- 
sideration as  was  dictated  by  self-interest.  Since 
man  is  almost  as  humane  as  he  is  cruel,  no 
doubt  the  masters  had  their  benevolent  moments, 
but  the  institution  was,  nevertheless,  fully  as 
demoralising  for  owners  as  owned.  The  blacks 
multiplied,  however,1  and  if  the  abolition  of 
slavery  was  not  accompanied  here  as  in  the 
United  States  by  acts  of  violence,  the  reason  is 
that,  to  the  everlasting  honour  of  the  white  man, 
the  institution  had  been  universally  condemned 
before  emancipation  was  proclaimed. 

It  has  been  said  that  in  Brazil  slavery  was 

1  It  was  the  custom  in  many  plantations  to  free  any 
negress  who  bore  six  children.     The  master  in  such  cases 
had  done  a  good  piece  of  business. 
23 


354          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

buried  beneath  flowers.  The  fact  is  it  had  be- 
come practically  impossible  when  its  disappear- 
ance was  publicly  and  officially  acknowledged. 
And  as,  happily,  there  was  no  race  hatred 
between  whites  and  blacks,  these  two  elements 
of  the  population  were  able  to  continue  to  live 
peaceably  side  by  side  in  a  necessary  collabora- 
tion. They  went  farther  than  this,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  and  the  races  mixed  with  a  freedom 
that  I  noticed  everywhere.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  social  concord,  this  is  cause  for  rejoicing, 
while  it  must  be  left  to  time  to  correct  any 
lowering  of  the  intellectual  standard.  Every 
one  knows  that  the  principal  feature  of  a  slave- 
owning  community  is  the  absence  of  a  middle 
class  whose  mission  it  must  be  to  hold  the  bal- 
ance in  an  oligarchy  and  prepare  the  way  for 
the  emancipation  of  the  oppressed. 

When  the  principle  of  democracy  was  pro- 
claimed by  the  "  big  whites "  of  Brazil,  they 
could  rely  for  support  only  on  the  leading  in- 
tellectuals of  sound  general  education,  and  on 
the  inorganic  masses  of  the  population  formed 
or  deformed  morally  by  slavery,  and  its  attend- 
ant evils,  with  an  incoherent  admixture  supplied 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   355 

by  immigration.  This,  necessarily,  was  the 
situation  that  had  to  be  faced  on  the  morrow 
of  the  decree  of  emancipation.  By  degrees  this 
state  of  affairs  has  been  and  is  still  being  im- 
proved. The  substratum  of  the  community  re- 
mains, however,  such  as  I  have  shown  it.  I  am 
aware,  of  course,  that  in  this  immense  territory 
there  are  vast  districts  of  varying  soil  and 
climate  where  Indians  and  blacks  are  very  un- 
equally divided.  For  the  purposes  of  this  brief 
summary,  I  am  naturally  only  taking  into  ac- 
count representative  centres  of  population.  In 
some  parts  the  negroes  have  deserted  the  planta- 
tions for  the  towns  to  which  they  were  attracted 
by  the  opportunities  for  employment,  and  their 
place  has  been  taken  by  Italian  colonies  who 
have  established  themselves  as  small  farmers. 
Elsewhere  the  ex-slaves  remained  in  their  cabins 
and  continued  their  accustomed  tasks  with  more 
or  less  zeal,  content  if  thus  enabled  to  live  as 
they  liked.  They  appear  to  work  and  live  in 
perfect  harmony  with—tlieir  former  owners. 

As  regards  the  social  elite,  it  is  less  easy  to 
pick  out  its  general  features  here  than  it  is  in 
the  Argentine,  where  on  every  hand  there  are 


356  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

visible  points  of  comparison  with  Europe.  We 
are  constantly  obliged  to  revert  to  our  starting- 
point,  which  is  a  feudal  oligarchy,  the  centre  of 
culture  and  refinement,  which  by  a  voluntary 
act  is  in  process  of  formation  into  a  single  heter- 
ogeneous mass  without  any  jarring  of  racial 
relations.  For  a  long  time  the  Empire  preserved 
a  nucleus  of  aristocracy  of  which  only  a  vestige 
remains  to-day.  There  might  now  be  a  danger 
of  submersion  beneath  an  inferior  intellectual 
element  which  lacks  the  powerful  bias  towards 
higher  education  peculiar  to  the  Brazilian  mind. 
It  is  necessarily  this  element  which  will  prove 
the  salvation  of  the  country.  It  is  on  his  plan- 
tation (f  azenda),  in  the  centre  of  his  influence, 
that  we  must  seek  the  planter  (fazendero).  Of 
a  highly  refined  theoretical  feudalism,  deeply 
imbued  with  European  ways  of  thinking,  and 
with  the  generous  social  standards  that  dis- 
tinguished, at  one  time,  our  own  eighteenth- 
century  aristocracy,  sublimely  unconscious — and 
destined  probably  to  remain  so — of  the  first 
spasmodic  movements  of  forces  whose  evolution 
towards  a  new  order  implies  confusion  at  the 
outset,  he  is  infinitely  superior  to  the  generality 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   357 

of  his  kind  in  Europe,  who  are  either  the  pro- 
duct of  tradition  or  the  outcome  of  democratic 
circumstance.  He  leads  the  broad  and  simple 
life  of  the  large  landowner  in  a  land  whose  soil 
offers  every  inducement  to  try  fresh  experiments. 
Everywhere  within  you  will  notice  evidences  of 
his  search  for  the  Beautiful  and  his  thirst  for 
knowledge.  And  everywhere  without  you  will 
see  the  convincing  proofs  of  his  endless  activity. 
In  Paris  one  of  these  influential  men  may  pass 
unnoticed,  so  little  does  he  resemble  his  proto- 
type as  invented  by  satirists,  with  his  modesty 
of  speech  and  simplicity  of  bearing.  He  would, 
however,  repay  a  closer  study,  and  when  he 
comes  among  us  to  obtain  fresh  force  for  his 
strenuous  task,  I  should  like  to  see  some  of  our 
young  men  seize  the  opportunity  to  improve 
themselves  by  paying  him  a  visit. 

All  these  social  forces  have  a  natural  tendency 
to  form  themselves  into  groups.  But  the  Brazil- 
ian planter,  like  other  feudal  survivals  in  Europe, 
is  exposed  to  the  attack  of  every  modern  com- 
mercial and  industrial  force  that  is  tempted  to 
wield  some  sort  of  social  authority.  This  is 
now  the  base  of  all  communities — in  Rio,  in 


358          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Saint  Paul,  or  in  any  other  city  of  the  world. 
A  reception  on  extremely  Parisian  lines  given 
by  Senator  Azeredo,  assisted  by  Senora  Azeredo, 
proved  once  again  how  strong  is  the  likeness  be- 
tween circles  that  believe  themselves  to  be  utterly 
different.  A  single  telegram  suffices  to  give  uni- 
formity to  the  toilettes  of  all  the  women  in  the 
world,  and  if  those  to  be  seen  in  Senora  Azeredo's 
salons  were  less  extravagant  than  some  Parisian 
examples,  Rio  struck  me  as  being  quite  as  eager 
as  Paris  in  its  pursuit  of  beauty's  adornments. 
Shall  I  mention  that  Brazilian  women  have  large 
black  eyes,  which  seem  to  ask  a  thousand  ques- 
tions, usually  pale  complexions,  sometimes  of  a 
golden  bronze  tint,  that  they  are  vivacious  in 
speech  and  take  a  delight  in  conversational 
tourneys? 

Senores  Pinhero  Machada  and  Guanabara 
were  kind  enough  to  give  me  an  invitation  that 
enabled  me  to  see  a  little  more  of  some  of  their 
politicians.  Senor  Pinhero  Machada  has  a  house 
that  is  built  among  the  palm-trees  on  a  height 
that  commands  the  whole  of  the  bay.  I  con- 
fess that  in  this  enchanting  place  I  was  more 
tempted  to  open  my  eyes  than  my  ears;  still,  in 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   359 

spite  of  the  counter-attractions  of  the  lovely 
landscape,  I  managed  to  study  the  mysteries  of 
Brazilian  politics  a  little  more  closely,  and,  as 
I  had  begun  to  do  at  Sefior  Guanabara's,  to 
realise  that  reasons  for  union  are  and  will  re- 
main predominant  providing  that  the  question 
of  personalities  does  not  obtrude. 

How  shall  I  fail  to  speak  of  the  ball  given 
in  commemoration  of  the  Independence  of  Chile, 
where  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  the  flower 
of  Rio  society  together  with  the  representatives 
of  all  the  foreign  Powers?  I  should  only  give 
it  a  passing  mention  were  it  not  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic,  who  opened  the  ball  in 
person,  had  conceived  the  idea  of  inviting  me 
to  form  one  of  the  official  quadrille,  with  the 
thought,  of  course,  of  paying  a  compliment  to 
my  country.  When  the  excellent  Prefect  of  Rio 
announced  this  decree  of  public  authority,  I  be- 
lieved a  catastrophe  was  imminent,  and  did  not 
hesitate  to  impart  my  fears  to  his  charming  wife, 
who  declared  herself  ready  to  go  under  fire  by 
my  side.  The  worst  of  it  was  that  I  had  before 
me  the  mocking  eyes  of  the  papal  nuncio  with 
whom  I  had  just  shaken  hands,  and  I  could  see 


360          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

that  lie  was  far  from  wishing  me  success  in  the 
perilous  career  on  which  I  was  about  to  embark. 
Timidly,  I  broke  it  to  my  partner  that  it  was 
over  fifty  years  since  I  had  danced  a  quadrille, 
and  she  returned  my  confidence  by  acknowledg- 
ing that  her  education  as  regards  the  art  of 
dancing  had  been  totally  neglected.  The  great 
fat  man  in  scarlet,  whose  ring  was  large  enough 
to  boil  an  egg  in,  found  our  predicament  vastly 
amusing.  I  saw  myself  about  to  become  the 
scandal  of  Christianity.  Uniting  our  ignorance, 
my  partner  and  I  took  up  our  positions  and 
arranged  to  imitate  to  the  best  of  our  ability  the 
movement  that  might  be  suggested  by  the  music 
to  the  youthful  couple  that  formed  our  vis-a-vis. 
Thereupon,  the  orchestra,  a  piano  and  some  other 
instrument,  began  to  play,  and  we  saw  that  the 
charming  young  couple  on  whom  we  relied  were 
obviously  waiting  for  us  to  set  the  example. 
What  was  to  be  done?  I  looked  at  my  neigh- 
bours. They  could  not  agree.  One  advanced, 
the  other  retired.  The  President  of  the  Republic 
tried  to  encourage  the  rest  of  us  by  getting  him- 
self into  hopeless  muddles.  I  soon  saw  that  all 
we  needed  to  do  was  to  tread  on  the  toes  of 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   361 

our  neighbours  and  then  bow  our  apologies,  to 
begin  again  immediately  the  same  manoeuvre. 
Tbis  I  accomplished,  to  the  great  disappoint- 
ment of  the  scarlet  man,  who  was  obliged  to 
give  a  wry  smile  at  the  spectacle  of  the  grace 
I  managed  to  display  in  the  service  of  my 
country. 

I  should  have  liked  to  see  the  theatres.  Time 
was  lacking.  I  saw  only  a  performance  of  The 
Daughter  of  the  Regiment,  given  in  Italian  at 
the  Lyric  Theatre,  formerly  the  principal  play- 
house of  Rio  under  the  Empire.  The  Imperial 
box  was  placed  at  my  disposal  and  proved  to 
be  a  veritable  apartment,  furnished  in  the  style 
of  Louis  Philippe.  I  was  told  it  had  been  kept 
unchanged. 

The  Municipal  Theatre,  practically  a  copy  of 
our  own  opera^house^is  one  of  the  finest  build- 
ings in  the  Brazilian  capital,  its  only  fault  be- 
ing that  it  swallowed  up  too  many  of  the  public 
millions.  On  the  ground  floor  there  is  a  very 
luxurious  restaurant  containing  a  faithful  copy 
in  glazed  bricks  of  the  frieze  The  Immortals, 
brought  by  M.  and  Mme.  Dieulafoy  from  Suez 
and  now  in  the  Louvre.  Here  the  French  colony 


362          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

gave  a  dinner  in  my  honour.  A  certain  num- 
ber of  statesmen  accepted  the  invitation  of  my 
compatriots,  and  thus  I  had  the  great  pleasure 
of  assuring  myself  by  my  own  ears  of  the  friendly 
relations  that  exist  between  French  and  Brazil- 
ians. At  one  time  we  had  a  very  important 
colony  in  Bio.  For  reasons  that  are  not  too 
clear  to  me,  it  has  dwindled  away  of  late.  I 
found,  however,  at  the  reception  held  by  the 
French  Chamber  of  Commerce  that  if  lacking  in 
quantity,  the  quality  of  these  French  represen- 
tatives left  nothing  to  be  desired.  The  natural 
affinity  between  the  two  peoples  is  so  obvious  that 
the  multiple  attractions  of  this  great  and  beauti- 
ful country  are  for  French  people  enhanced  by 
the  joy  of  a  genuine  communion  of  thought  and 
feeling  which  links  their  hopes  and  aims.  To 
my  intense  satisfaction,  I  had  a  proof  of  this 
at  my  first  contact  with  the  public  of  Rio,  and 
the  same  experience  was  pleasantly  renewed 
later  at  Saint  Paul;  I  found  that  I  could  speak 
with  the  utmost  freedom  as  a  Frenchman  to 
Frenchmen,  for  there  was  not  the  smallest  sug- 
gestion of  a  foreign  element  in  the  mind  of  my 
audience  to  remind  me  to  adapt  myself  to  new 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  363 

susceptibilities.  I  know  not  how  adequately  to 
thank  my  audiences  for  what  in  French  eyes 
appeared  the  supreme  gift  of  a  spontaneous 
manifestation  of  French  mentality.  The  Acad- 
emy of  Medicine_were  good  enough  to  invite 
me  to  pay  them  a  visit,  and  I  will  freely  con- 
fess that  a  consciousness  of  my  unworthiness 
made  me  hesitate  to  face  this  learned  assembly. 
On  this  point  they  reassured  me  by  declaring 
that  the  meeting  would  be  merely  in  honour 
of  French  culture.  I  went  accordingly,  and 
scarcely  had  we  exchanged  our  first  greetings 
when  I  already  felt  myself  at  home  in  a  French 
atmosphere.  Medical  science  being  out  of  the 
question,  the  delicate  fare  offered  to  me  was 
some  reflections  on  the  general  philosophy  of 
science,  as  developed  by  the  magnificent  intel- 
lectual labour  of  France,  and  on  the  powerful 
lead  given  to  the  activities  of  civilisation  by  our 
country.  Could  anything  be  more  encouraging 
than  this  disinterested  acceptance  of  the  testi- 
mony of  history,  considering  how  many  there  be 
who  would  exalt  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
France? 

A  very  different  atmosphere  awaited  me  at  the 


364  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

Bangu  factories,  where  are  admirable  spinning 
and  weaving  mills;  here  the  raw  Brazilian  cot- 
ton is  transformed  into  those  printed  stuffs  of 
vivid  colourings  in  which  the  working  classes 
love  to  drape  themselves  and  thus  supply  a  feast 
for  our  eyes.  Here  there  were  fewer  abstract 
terms  employed  to  declare  the  esteem  so  freely 
accorded  to  France.  But  here,  as  in  other  parts 
of  the  great  Republic,  I  found  the  few  brief 
words  uttered  in  private  encounters  still  more 
convincing  than  the  noisier  demonstrations. 
Wherever  the  work  of  social  evolution  is  being 
carried  on,  wherever  there  is  seen  a  fine  promise 
for  the  future,  their  it  is  a  joy  for  the  French 
to  find  the  name  of  their  country  associated  with 
the  forward  movement.  The  splendid  industrial 
development  of  Bangu  among  many  other  similar 
centres  shows  what  is  being  done  in  Brazil  in 
this  direction.  I  have  seen  nothing  more  strik- 
ing in  Europe.  The  Brazilians  possess  in  an 
equal  degree  with  the  Argentinos  the  capacity 
of  bringing  to  the  highest  possible  perfection 
any  work  to  which  they  set  their  hand. 

I  have  already  said  that  in  Brazil  our  laws 
for  the  protection  of  industrial  and  agricultural 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   365 

labourers  are  unknown.  Not  but  what  politi- 
cians have  studied  the  matter.  But  in  the  im- 
perfectly centralised  organisation  of  all  these 
floating  authorities,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  such 
laws,  if  voted,  could  be  effectually  applied.  All 
the  more  credit  is  therefore  due  to  the  large 
employers  of  Brazilian  labour  who  have  done 
their  best  to  improve  the  material  condition  of 
their  hands  without  waiting  to  be  compelled  to 
do  so.  The  working  population  of  Bangu  is 
scattered  about  the  country  in  chalets  that  ap- 
pear to  be  admirably  hygienic,  and  all  wear  the 
aspect  of  the  finest  of  physical  and  moral  well- 
being.  A  large  building  has  been  provided  for 
meetings  of  all  kinds  and  a  theatre  in  which 
the  hands  may  amuse  themselves  with  theatricals 
and  concerts.  It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  we 
were  received  to  the  strains  of  the  Marseillaise 
and  that  the  French  Republic  was  vigorously 
cheered.  I  do  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  there 
were  no  dark  sides  here  or  elsewhere  to  the 
picture.  I  have  not  concealed  the  fact  that  im- 
migrants complain  loudly  of  the  want  of  super- 
vision from  which  they  suffer  in  some  regions. 
It  seems  fair  to  infer  from  what  has  already 


J 


366          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

been  accomplished  that  more  is  being  attempted. 
It  is  naturally  the  farmer  on  the  fazendas  who 
receives  the  most  attention  because  he  is  the 
deep  and  almost  inexhaustible  source  of  the 
national  wealth. 

It  would  appear  that  there  are  no  limits  to 
the  productiveness  of  this  soil,  whose  fertility 
has  been  developed  and  renewed  during  so  many 
centuries  by  the  combined  action  of  sun  and 
rain.  Side  by  side  with  the  barbarism  of  slavery 
there  has  been  a  barbarous  system  applied  to 
the  land,  which  has  resulted  in  its  impoverish- 
ment. Now  the  relation  between  production 
and  fertilisation  has  come  prominently  forward. 
There  is  still,  however,  much  virgin  land  that 
awaits  the  farmer.  The  real  problem  of  a 
rational  system  of  agriculture  to  be  applied  in 
Brazil  will  be  left  for  a  future  generation. 
Meantime,  their  finest  forests  are  burning  and 
filling  the  horizon  with  smoke.  This  represents 
what  the  Brazilians  call  "  clearing "  the  land. 
But  the  Brazilian  forests  deserve  a  volume,  not 
a  paragraph,  or  chapter — and  its  writer  should 
be  both  learned  and  a  poet.  I  did  not  visit  the 
fairylike  regions  of  the  Amazon,  but  however 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  367 

amazing  they  may  be,  I  think  they  could  scarcely 
surpass  the  powerful  impression  made  on  me  by 
the  forests  of  Saint  Paul.  There  is  a  limit  to 
our  nervous  receptivity,  beyond  which  point  we 
become  insensible  to  sensation.  We  in  Europe 
have  dwelt  amid  a  beautiful  harmony  of 
the  forces  of  Nature  which  have  moulded  all 
our  impressions  in  a  certain  form  of  beauty; 
to  find  fault  with  them  would  be  sacrilege,  since 
the  highest  inspirations  of  art  have  been  drawn 
from  this  source.  Thus,  consciously  or  not,  we 
have  lived  in  an  equilibrium  of  pleasing  emo- 
tions, that  imposes  on  us  certain  limitations  of 
sensation  to  be  derived  from  the  spectacle  that 
Nature  provides.  Therefore,  when  we  are  sud- 
denly confronted  with  an  unknown  Nature, 
whose  power  and  vigour  shatter  all  our  precon- 
ceived notions,  and  alter  the  whole  focus  of  our 
organs,  the  only  possible  effect  at  first  is  one 
of  complete  bewilderment.  We  must  take  time 
to  get  used  to  this  new  order  of  sensations 
before  we  expose  ourselves  to  another  and  get 
back  again  to  the  standpoint  of  a  corresponding 
sense  of  aesthetics.  I  had  to  endure  several 
headaches  before  I  could  rise  to  the  level  of 


368          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  genius  of  Berlioz  or  Wagner.  What  if  we 
compared  our  own  landscape  with  the  music  of 
Gluck  or  Mozart?  Then  you  may  grasp  the 
Wagnerian  fury  of  the  virgin  forests  which  pro- 
duce a  stupefaction  that  leaves  you  incapable 
of  analysis  and  a  prey  to  a  tumult  of  superla- 
tives. And  all  this  happens  simply  because  we 
have  been  exposed  to  the  shock  of  a  higher  mani- 
festation of  the  terrestrial  forces  of  the  world. 

The  Botanical  Gardens  of  Rio  are  famous  the 
world  over.  The  astounding  forms  of  foliage, 
the  bold  growth  of  ancient  tree  and  young  shoot, 
the  inimitably  dense  profusion  of  every  form 
of  vegetable  life,  recalling  what  must  have  been 
the  earliest  stage  of  the  life  of  our  planet,  re- 
duced me  to  a  state  of  speechless  surprise.  I 
promised  myself  a  second  visit  to  its  marvels, 
but  never  accomplished  this,  for  spectacles  of 
even  greater  magic  detained  me  elsewhere. 

"  Bon  Vista,"  the  Emperor's  country  house  in 
a  suburb  of  Rio,  is  surrounded  by  a  fine  park 
which  is  going  to  be  turned  into  a  public  garden. 
The  Flumineuses  make  frequent  pilgrimages 
thither,  with  their  families,  to  spend  a  day  in 
the  shade  of  its  trees  during  the  hot  season. 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   369 

But,  to  tell  the  truth,  while  they  in  this  way 
enjoy  Europeanising  themselves  in  artificially 
made  gardens,  I  took  a  delight  in  drinking  in 
the  Americanisation  that  awaits  you  in  the  out- 
posts of  the  young  Corcovado  forest,  which 
seems  to  be  advancing  to  the  attack  of  urban 
civilisation  and  pursues  man  even  in  the  very 
streets  of  Rio. 

This  urban  forest  is  one  of  the  charms  of  the 
Brazilian  capital.  It  clasps  the  city  in  its 
powerful  embrace  and  seems  determined  to  drive 
back  the  population  into  the  sea,  whence  it 
sprang,  creeping  insidiously  into  every  open 
space,  blending  with  the  avenues,  spreading  over 
squares  and  parks,  and  everywhere  declaring  the 
triumph  and  victory  of  the  first  force  of  Nature 
over  the  belated  but  redoubtable  energy  of  hu- 
manity. Trees,  creepers,  ferns,  shrubs — all  these 
forms  seem  to  be  mounting  to  the  heights  that 
crown  the  bay  in  order  to  draw  from  the  sun- 
shine a  renewal  of  their  vigour.  The  high  peak 
of  the  Corcovado  (over  2000  feet)  that  broods 
over  the  city,  looms  large  on  the  horizon,  and  one 
can  readily  believe  that  the  first  thought  of  the 
invader  was  to  climb  that  height  and  survey 
24 


370          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  marvellous  panorama  before  him.  Unlike 
the  Galilean,  he  needed  no  tempter  to  sow  in  his 
mind  the  desire  of  possession.  But,  alas!  the 
task  of  appropriation  is  not  accomplished  with- 
out encountering  some  obstacles,  and  the 
would-be  mountain  climber  is  forced  to  con- 
centrate his  attention  on  one  spot  of  the  planet 
that  holds  him  in  the  grip  of  an  irresistible 
attraction.  A  funicular  railway  performs  this 
office  for  him;  and  with  no  more  trouble  than 
that  of  letting  yourself  be  drawn  up  under  the 
branches,  you  suddenly  emerge  on  a  height 
whence  you  get  a  magic  vision  of  Kio,  with  her 
bay,  her  islets,  and  a  mass  of  mountains  heaped 
one  upon  the  other,  until  they  are  finally  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  sea.  A  new  world  is  here  re- 
vealed to  your  gaze — a  world  in  which  the  whole 
miracle  of  the  earth's  multiple  aspects  is  epito- 
mised, where  the  eternal  play  of  light  and  shade 
constitutes  an  ever-changing  picture  that  creates 
a  world-drama  in  inanimate  Nature.  Are  you 
surprised  to  meet  some  Parisians  up  here?  No, 
not  much.  The  first  result  of  our  industrial 
equipment  is  to  dimmish  the  proportions  of  the 
globe.  It  is  easier  to-day  to  go  from  one  con- 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   371 

tinent  to  another  thanjt  used  to  be  to  go  from 
one  village  to  the  next.  I  am  personally  glad 
of  this,  for  nothing  could  be  better  for  us  French 
people  than  to  travel  in  foreign  countries,  since 
in  this  way  we  get  a.  standard  of  comparison 
that  we  badly  need. 

Coming  down  from  the  Corcovado,  you  must 
stop  at  "  Silvestre,"  whence  a  shady  path  cut 
in  the  mountainside  will  bring  you  back  to  the 
city,  through  a  wilderness  of  wood  where  a  pro- 
fusion of  parasitic  growth  covers  the  boughs, 
tying  them  up  in  a  mad  confusion  of  tendrils. 

Next  after  the  Corcovado  the  Tijuca  will 
attract  you,  and,  like  the  former,  it  ends  in 
wondrous  points  of  view.  In  this  case  the 
pleasure  is  in  getting  there.  You  pass  now 
through  lines  of  tall  bamboos,  whose  light  foliage 
meets  overhead;  now  you  follow  the  course  of 
a  noisy  waterfall  that  seethes  amid  the  verdure 
of  the  forest;  anon  you  descend  into  a  valley 
that  is  shaded  by  the  fresh  and  delicate  foliage 
of  the  banana-trees,  or  rise  to  the  top  of  a  hill 
from  which  all  the  indentations  of  the  great  bay 
are  plainly  visible,  and  a  small  gulf  hidden  in 
an  avalanche  of  rocks  and  boulders  lies  revealed, 


372          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

where  the  mysterious  waters  sob  and  vanish  on 
a  bed  of  flowers.  Ever  onward,  the  motor-car 
pursues  its  headlong  way  at  a  speed  one  longs 
to  check.  Often  we  stop  to  prolong  the  pleas- 
ure of  a  moment,  but  if  one  did  not  take  care 
one  might  stop  for  ever.  The  pen  is  powerless 
to  convey  what,  perhaps,  the  brush  might  reveal 
—the  joy  of  life  that  swells  to  bursting  the  sap 
of  every  twig  and  leaf,  every  flower  and  fruit, 
from  the  humblest  blade  of  grass  to  the  loftiest 
extremity  of  the  tallest  trees,  and  renders  so 
impressively  active  every  organ  of  the  vegetable 
world.  I  remember  pausing  before  a  simple 
creeper  which  had  produced  some  billions  of 
blossoms,  and  had  imprisoned  a  whole  tree  in 
a  kind  of  tent  of  blue  flames.  This  example 
alone  will  serve  to  give  the  measure  of  the 
tropical  fecundity.  The  object  of  our  drive 
was  the  "  Emperor's  Table  "  and  "  China  Street." 
After  the  view  from  the  Corcovado  this  seemed 
less  grandiose,  but  in  any  other  country  of  the 
world  it  would  arouse  a  rapture  of  admiration. 
We  returned  to  the  city  by  another  route,  tra- 
versing a  part  of  the  mountain  where  rows  of 
villas  embowered  in  flowers  seemed  hung  up 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   373 

half-way  between  sky  and  sea.  You  are  back 
in  Rio  before  you  realise  that  you  have  left  the 
forest. 

It  is  impossible  to  speak  of  Rio  without  men- 
tioning Petropolis,  which  owes  its  success  to  the 
yellow-fever  mosquito.  The  Flumineuses  formed 
the  habit  of  migrating  to  this  mountain  sta- 
tion in  order  to  escape  from  the  attacks  of 
the  plague-carrying  mosquito,  which  is  so  active 
after  sunset.  A  well-founded  fear  of  the  scourge 
drove  all  those  who  could  afford  it  out  of  Rio, 
and  at  their  head  were  the  Emperor — later  the 
President  of  the  Republic,  the  Ministers,  and 
diplomatists,  with  their  families.  Thus  Petrop- 
olis, an  hour's  journey  from  Rio,  became  in 
some  sort  a  fashionable  watering-place,  whose 
charming  villas  stand  in  a  forest  of  tropical 
gardens.  It  is  a  delightful  spot  for  all  who  can 
turn  their  back  on  the  business  of  the  outside 
world,  which  seems,  indeed,  far  enough  away. 
For  this  reason  the  European  diplomatists  spend 
long  days  here,  filled  with  visiting,  excursions 
(there  are  many  charming  ones  to  be  made  from 
this  centre),  or  the  idle  gossip  that  constitutes 
this  centre),  or  the  idle  gossip  that  constitutes 


374          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

that  work  is  lacking;  but  we  know  that  every- 
where custom  is  stronger  than  utility,  and  cus- 
tom is  very  exacting.  Now  that  the  mosquito 
has  deserted  Eio  the  Government  has  settled  in 
the  capital,  leaving  the  mountain  station  to  the 
diplomats  and  their  papers.  How  can  diplo- 
macy exist  without  a  Government  round  which  to 
"  circumlocutionise"?  For  the  smallest  formal- 
ity one  must  take  the  train.  Coming  back  in 
the  evening  is  fatiguing.  One  goes  to  the  hotel 
for  the  night.  Your  friends  take  possession  of 
you,  and  while  you  are  dawdling  in  Eio  all  your 
correspondence  is  lying  unanswered  at  Petrop- 
olis.  There  is,  in  consequence,  a  strong  feeling 
now  that  "  the  diplomats  ought  to  settle  at  Eio," 
near  to  the  Baron  de  Eio  Branco,  who  somehow 
invariably  manages  to  be  at  Eio  when  they  are 
at  Petropolis  and  vice  versa,  just  to  upset  our 
worthy  "plenipotentiaries."  All  this  is  not 
done  without  a  certain  expenditure  of  money. 
Budget  commissioners,  beware! 

Theresopolis  is  another  mountain  station, 
three  hours  from  Eio.  On  the  opposite  shore  of 
the  bay  a  railway  climbs  or  winds  round  the 
lower  slopes,  cutting  its  way  through  the  forest 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  375 

as  far  as  a  vast  plateau,  whence  radiates  a  num- 
ber of  paths  that  invite  you  to  wander  amongst 
the  astonishing  phenomena  of  this  fiercely  abund- 
ant vegetation.  A  "  circus "  of  bare  rocks 
bristles  with  pointed  peaks,  one  of  which,  bear- 
ing some  resemblance  to  the  forefinger  of  a  hu- 
man hand,  is  known  as  "  the  Finger  of  God." 
Whichever  way  you  bend  your  steps  this  formid- 
able and  imperious  finger  lifts  itself  against  the 
horizon,  as  if  tracing  the  path  of  the  planets 
through  the  heavens.  The  beauty  of  Theresopolis 
lies  in  its  madly  bounding  torrents,  which  leap 
the  giant  boulders  heaped  up  in  its  course,  ruth- 
lessly destroying  the  green  growths  that  make 
a  daily  struggle  for  life.  For  me  this  giant 
strife  provides  an  incomparable  spectacle.  I 
confess  that  the  series  of  forest  panoramas  that 
open  out  on  either  side  of  the  railway,  from 
Rio  Bay  to  Theresopolis,  give  a  magic  charm 
to  the  day's  excursion.  Tall  ferns  raised  against 
the  sky  the  transparent  lacework  of  a  light  para- 
sol, monstrous  bamboos  threw  into  the  melee 
their  long  shoots,  shaped  like  green  javelins; 
shrubs,  both  slender  and  stout,  and  of  every 
kind  of  leafy  growth,  encroach  upon  the  heavy 


376  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

branches,  worn  out  with  the  weight  of  parasites ; 
the  creepers  twined  like  boas  round  their  sup- 
ports, flinging  back  from  the  crest  of  the  highest 
trees  a  wealth  of  fine  tendrils  that,  on  reaching 
once  again  their  native  earth,  will  there  take 
fresh  root  and  draw  renewed  force  for  the  fu- 
ture fight  with  fresh  resistances,  a  single  one  of 
the  family,  with  leaves  like  a  young  bamboo,  so 
fine  that  the  stalk  is  well-nigh  invisible,  entirely 
shrouding  a  whole  tree  in  its  frail  yet  stubborn 
network,  transforming  it  into  a  green  arbour 
that  would  put  to  shame  any  to  be  found  in  our 
ancient  and  classic  gardens — all  these  and  many 
other  aspects  of  the  marvellous  forest  arouse 
an  unwearying  and  never-ending  admiration, 
mingled  with  wonder  at  the  blows  dealt  on  a 
battlefield  of  opposing  forces  where  the  weapons 
are  none  the  less  deadly  for  being  immovable. 

There  is  no  forest  to  be  seen  on  the  road 
from  Rio  to  Saint  Paul.  Here  man  has  passed. 
On  all  sides  are  visible  the  signs  of  destruction 
wrought  by  systematic  fires.  Thanks  to  Senor 
Paul  de  Frontin,  the  Company's  manager,  and 
two  friends  of  whom  I  shall  have  occasion  to 
speak  again  later — Senores  Teixera  Scares  and 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   377 

Augusto  Ramos — I  made  the  journey  under  the 
best  possible  conditions.  The  great  point  was 
to  see  the  country  as  we  passed.  Could  any 
better  way  be  imagined  than  that  of  placing 
the  locomotive  behind  the  coach,  which  was 
arranged  like  a  salon,  its  front  wall  being  taken 
away  and  replaced  by  a  simple  balcony?  With 
rugs  to  guard  against  the  freshness  of  the  breeze, 
you  find  yourself  comfortably  installed  in  the 
very  centre  of  a  landscape  whence  you  may  see 
mountains,  rivers,  valleys,  fleeing  before  you  in 
the  course  of  a  run  of  five  hundred  kilometres. 
For  the  whole  of  the  day  I  was  able  to  drink 
in  the  fresh  air  and  strong  lights,  as  I  looked  out 
eagerly  to  discover  new  beauties.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  I  saw  nothing  but  mountains  and  hill- 
sides that  had  been  wantonly  despoiled  of  their 
native  vegetation.  Here  and  there  a  small 
banana-wood  growing  in  a  crevice  showed  the 
proximity  of  the  cabins  of  negro  colonists  and 
their  offspring,  who  displayed  in  the  sunlight 
the  unashamed  bronze  nakedness  for  which  none 
could  blush.  They  were  leading  the  nonchalant 
life  of  the  farmer  who  expects  to  draw  from  the 
earth  the  maximum  of  harvest  for  the  minimum 


378  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  trouble.  Whether  under  cultivation  or  lying 
waste,  at  this  time  of  the  year  the  land  pre- 
sented the  same  appearance  of  bare  wildness. 
Sometimes  on  the  top  of  a  hill  there  would 
be  seen  one  of  the  old  plantations  surrounded 
by  walls  built  to  imprison  the  slaves,  or  coffee- 
gardens,  now  abandoned  because  the  soil  was 
worn  out  for  want  of  dressing,  or  long  stretches 
of  pale  green  denoting  young  rice  crops,  water- 
courses dashing  over  rocks  and  gliding  through 
brushwood — the  last  resort  of  the  birds, — vestiges 
of  calcined  forests  where  the  new  growth  of 
vegetation  eager  to  reach  the  sun  was  ever  cut 
back  and  repressed;  and  everywhere  flashes  of 
red  light  that  resolve  themselves  into  birds, 
shuddering  palpitations  of  blue  flames  that  be- 
come butterflies,  or  the  bronzed  reflections  of 
phosphorescent  light  that  reveals  a  dancing 
cloud  of  hummingbirds.  On  the  horizon  spots 
of  black  smoke,  betokening  forests  that  are 
blazing  in  all  parts  to  make  way  for  future  har- 
vests— a  melancholy  spectacle  of  a  wanton  de- 
struction of  natural  beauties  that  has  not  even 
the  excuse  of  necessity,  since  the  splendid  forests 
are  only  attacked  to  save  the  trouble  of  fertilis- 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  379 

ing  the  land  exhausted  by  cultivation.  I  was 
told  that  at  the  first  outbreak  of  fire  the  great 
birds  of  carrion  come  up  in  flocks  to  cut  off 
the  retreat  of  the  monkeys  and  serpents  that 
flee  in  terror.  I  did  not  witness  this  part  of 
the  tragedy,  but  I  was  near  enough  to  see  all 
the  horror  of  the  fearful  flare.  In  the  crackling 
of  the  burning  palms,  in  the  whirling  clouds 
of  blinding  smoke  furrowed  with  a  sinister  glow, 
boughs  and  branches  lay  heaped  up  on  the 
ground  in  immense  flaming  piles,  through  which 
the  charred  stumps  of  boles,  brought  low  by 
fire,  crashed  noisily  to  earth,  where  their  corpses 
lay  and  slowly  smouldered  to  ashes  on  the 
morrow's  coffee  plantation  in  accordance  with 
the  law  of  Nature,  which  builds  fresh  forms 
of  life  out  of  the  decomposed  elements  of 
death. 

At  nightfall,  we  entered  the  station  of  Saint 
Paul,  where  the  cheers  of  the  students,  loudly 
acclaiming  the  French  Republic,  made  us  a  joy- 
ous welcome.  A  few  minutes  later  we  found 
ourselves  at  a  banquet  attended  apparently  by 
representatives  of  every  country  of  the  world, 
and  Brazilians  and  Frenchmen  here  united  to 


380          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

express  their  brotherly  aspirations  in  words  of 
lofty  idealism. 

The  city  of  Sain^  Paul  (350,000  inhabitants) 
is  so  curiously  French  in  some  of  its  aspects 
and  customs  thaTTfor  a  whole  week  I  had  not 
once  the  feelTng^ofjbeing  abroad.  The  feature  of 
Saint  Paul  is  that  Frenches  thejaniyersal  lan- 
guage.  Saint  Paul's  society  is  supposed  to  be  more 
markedly  individual  than  any  other  community 
in  the  Republic,  and  it  offers  this  double  pheno- 
menon of  being  strongly  imbued  with  the  French 
spirit,  and,  at  the  same  time,  of  having  developed 
those  personal  traits  that  go  to  make  up  its 
determining  characteristics.  You  may  take  it 
for  granted  that  the  Paulist  is  Paulist  to  the 
very  marrow  of  his  bones — Paulist  in  Brazil  as 
well  as  in  France  or  any  other  land;  and  then 
tell  me  if  there  was  ever  a  man  more  French 
in  courtesy,  more  nimble  in  conversation  in  his 
aristocratic  guise,  or  more  amiable  in  common 
intercourse,  than  this  Paulist  business  man,  at 
once  so  prudent  and  so  daring,  who  has  given 
to  coffee  a  new  valuation.  Talk  a  little  while 
with  Senor  Antonio  Prado,  Prefect  of  Saint 
Paul,  and  one  of  the  leading  citizens,  whose 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY   381 

mansion,  set  in  the  frame  of  a  marvellous  park 
of  tropical  vegetation,  would  be  a  thing  of  beauty 
in  any  country,  and  tell  me  whether  such  ele- 
gant simplicity  of  speech  could  imaginably  ex- 
press any  but  a  French  soul.  The  same  might 
be  said  of  his  nephew,  Senor  Arinos  de  Mello, 
of  whom  I  have  already  spoken,  a  clever  man 
of  letters  who  divides  his  life  between  the  virgin 
forest  and  the  boulevard,  and  who  might  easily 
be  taken  for  a  Parisian  but  for  a  soft  Creole 
accent.  Frenchmen  basking  in  Brazilian  suns,  or 
Brazilians  drinking  deep  of  Latin  springs — what 
matter  by  which  name  we  know  them,  so  that 
their  pulses  beat  with  the  same  fraternal  blood ! 
The  fact  that  the  Paulist  character  has  been 
strongly  developed  along  lines  of  its  own  and 
that  the  autonomy  of  Brazilian  States  permits 
of  the  fullest  independence  of  productive  energy 
within  the  limits  of  federal  freedom  has  led  some 
to  draw  the  hasty  conclusion  that  there  is  a 
keen  rivalry  between  the  different  provinces,  and 
to  see  separatist  tendencies  where  there  exists 
nothing  but  a  very  legitimate  ambition  to  for- 
ward a  free  evolution  under  the  protection  of 
confederated  interests. 


382          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 


States  of  Saint  Paul  and  Rio  stand  at  the 



head  of  the  confederation,  both  by  reason  of 
their  intellectual  superiority  and  by  their  eco- 
nomic expansion,  and  the  steady  increase  of  their 
personal  weight  in  the  federation  is  naturally 
in  proportion  to  the  influence  they  have  suc- 
ceeded in  acquiring  in  the  exercise  of  their  right 
to  self-government.  As  no  one  seeks  to  infringe 
any  of  their  prerogatives,  and  as  the  only  criti- 
cism one  might  make  would  be  that  certain 
States  are  at  present  unfit  to  fulfil  all  the  duties 
of  government,  while  any  attempt  at  separatism 
must  tend  to  weaken  each  and  all,  no  serious 
party,  either  at  Saint  Paul  or  Rio,  or,  indeed, 
in  any  other  province,  would  even  consent  to 
discuss  the  eventuality  of  a  slackening  of  the 
federal  tie.  The  Paulists  are  and  will  ever 
remain  Paulists,  but  Brazilian  Paulists. 

My  first  visit  was  paid  to  the  head  of  the 
government  of  Saint  Paul,  who  extended  to  me 
the  most  generous  of  hospitality.  Senor  Albu- 
querque Lins,  President  of  the  State,  received 
me  in  the  presence  of  his  Ministers — Senor  Olavo 
Egydio  de  Souza,  Minister  of  Finance;  Senor 
Carlos  Guimaraes,  Minister  of  the  Interior; 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  383 

Senor  Washington  Luis,  Minister  of  War;  and 
Seuor  Jorge  Tibiriga,  who  had  just  vacated  the 
Presidential  Chair,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  statesmen  of  Saint  Paul.  Senor 
Augusto  Ramos  and  our  Vice-Consul,  M.  Delage, 
whose  tact,  intelligence,  and  wide  understand- 
ing of  his  duties  are  above  all  praise,  were  also 
present  on  the  occasion.  The  President,  who 
had  an  exaggerated  opinion  of  the  defects  of  his 
French,  managed  to  convey  to  me  in  excellently 
worded  phrases  his  warm  sympathy  for  France, 
which,  indeed,  he  proved  by  his  cordial  recep- 
tion of  us.  I,  in  my  turn,  assured  him  of  the 
fraternal  sentiments  of  France  for  Brazil  and 
Brazilian  interests  in  general,  as  also  for  Saint 
Paul  and  Paulist  society  in  particular.  And 
then,  as  though  to  prove  that  our  compliments 
were  not  merely  those  demanded  by  etiquette, 
the  conversation  turned  upon  matters  in  which 
Saint  Paul  and  France  were  so  mixed  that  the 
Paulist  seemed  to  take  as  much  pleasure  in  ac- 
claiming France  as  did  the  Frenchman  in  ex- 
pressing his  admiration  for  the  stupendous  work 
carried  out  by  the  Paulists  with  such  giddy 
rapidity,  in  developing  a  modern  State  that 


384          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

founds  its  hopes  for  the  future  on  the  miracles 
accomplished  in  the  past. 

It  was  a  joy  to  me  to  run  about  the  city  at 
haphazard.  You  do  not  ask  from  Saint  Paul 
the  stage-setting  furnished  by  Bio;  yet  there  is 
no  lack  of  the  picturesque.  The  suburbs  of  Saint 
Paul,  where  costly  villas  make  bright  spots  of 
colour  in  the  gorgeously  beflowered  gardens,  can 
offer  some  fine  points  of  view.  At  the  end  of 
an  esplanade  bordered  with  trees  the  plateau 
suddenly  falls  away  into  a  gentle  valley  which 
would  seem  admirably  designed  for  the  site  of 
a  park,  worthy  the  ambitions  of  Saint  Paul  if 
the  authorities  would  but  set  about  it  while  the 
price  of  land  is  still  moderate.  The  only  public 
garden  at  present  owned  by  the  town  is  a  pretty 
promenade  that  can  scarcely  be  considered  as 
more  than  a  pleasant  witness  to  a  modest  past. 

In  the  course  of  our  walk  we  came  upon  the 
museum,  which  stands  on  the  hill,  from  which 
the  independence  of  Brazil  was  proclaimed.  It 
contains  fine  zoological,  botanical,  and  paleonto- 
logical  collections.  I  was  shown  moths  of  more 
than  thirty  centimetres  in  breadth  of  wing,  and 
hummingbirds  considerably  smaller  than  cock- 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  385 

chafers.  I  paused  for  an  instant  before  the 
cases  containing  relics  of  prehistoric  America, 
with  utensils,  ornaments,  and  barbaric  dresses 
of  the  aboriginal  Indians  who  to-day  are  sadly 
travestied  in  abbreviated  breeches  and  remnants 
of  hard  felt  hats. 

There  was  no  time  to  visit  the  schools,  to 
whose  improvement  the  Paulist  Government  at- 
taches high  importance.  I  promised,  however, 
to  call  at  the  Training  College,  and,  indeed, 
could  scarcely  have  done  less,  since  this  mar- 
vellous institution  w^ould  be  a  model  in  any 
country  of  Europe.  I  can  but  regret  that  I  am 
unable  to  lead  the  reader  through  the  building 
to  see  it  in  all  its  details — its  rooms  for  study, 
its  gardens,  its  workshops.  The  young  Head- 
master, Senor  Ruy  de  Paula  Souza,  who  was  a 
pupil  at  our  Auteuil  College,  does  his  professors 
the  greatest  credit  and  does  not  conceal  his  am- 
bition to  surpass  them.  A  much  too  flattering 
reception  was  given  me,  in  the  course  of  which 
I  had  the  surprise  of  hearing  quotations  from 
some  of  my  own  writings  introduced  into  a 
speech  made  by  one  of  the  professors.  France 
and  French  culture  received  a  hearty  ovation. 
25 


386          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

The  warmth  of  the  welcome  given  me  at  Saint 
Paul  could  only  be  outdone  by  Rio.  The  charm 
of  a  hearty  expansion  of  fraternal  feeling  was 
added  to  the  cordiality  of  the  demonstrations  in 
honour  of  our  country.  The  pleasure  felt  when 
members  of  the  same  family  meet  after  separa- 
tion, and  find  their  mutual  affection  has  been 
generously  developed  in  the  course  of  life's  ex- 
perience— this  was  the  impression  made  on  me 
by  the  greeting  of  the  students  both  at  the  Train- 
ing College  and  at  the  Law  Schools,  where  one 
of  the  young  men  delivered  a  speech  in  excellent 
French  that  formed  the  best  of  introductions  to 
the  lecture  that  followed.  In  the  evening  the 
same  young  men  organised  a  torchlight  proces- 
sion. I  stood  at  a  window  with  a  French  officer 
on  either  side  of  me.  A  moving  speech  was  made 
to  me  by  a  student  who  stood  on  the  balcony 
of  the  house  opposite.  The  procession  passed 
by  to  the  strains  of  the  Marseillaise,  amid  a 
tumult  of  hurrahs,  in  honour  of  France. 

I  mentioned  two  French  officers.  There  is 
here  now  a  French  Military  Mission,  to  whom 
has  been  entrusted  the  training  of  the  police 
force,  whose  duty  it  will  be  to  ensure  order  in 


BRAZILIAN  SOCIETY  AND  SCENERY  387 

the  State  of  Saint  Paul.  Colonel  Balagny,  who 
is  in  command,  was  away  on  furlough.  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Gattelet,  who  takes  his  place,  is 
a  highly  deserving  soldier,  who  appears  to  com- 
bine strict  discipline  with  the  national  urbanity. 

I  observed  with  satisfaction  that  the  Mission 
was  very  popular  at  Saint  Paul.  When  the 
march  of  the  Sambre-et-Mcuse  rang  out  a  crowd 
assembled  to  watch  the  passing  of  the  troops 
with  their  French  officers  at  their  head.  In- 
tensely proud  of  this  force,  the  public  takes  a 
delight  in  cheering  them.  I  was  present  at  a 
fine  review  held  on  the  field  of  manoeuvres  at 
Varzea  de  Corma.  The  soldier  of  Saint  Paul 
would  figure  creditably  at  Longchamp,  for  in 
precision  and  regularity  of  movement  he  can 
bear  comparison  with  any.  I  must  add  that  the 
Brazilian  officers  who  second  the  efforts  of  the 
Mission  are  actuated  by  a  zeal  that  merits  a 
large  share  of  the  credit  of  the  results. 

When  I  congratulated  Colonel  Gattelet  I  felt 
I  ought  to  inquire  whether  he  had  been  obliged 
to  have  frequent  recourse  to  punishment  in  order 
to  bring  the  men  to  the  point  at  which  I  saw 
them. 


388          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

"  Punishment !  "  he  said.  "  I  have  never  had 
to  administer  any.  I  have  no  right,  for  one  thing ; 
and  if  I  wanted  to  punish  I  should  have  to 
ask  the  permission  of  the  Minister  of  War. 
But  I  have  never  had  occasion  even  to  think 
of  such  a  thing,  for  all  my  men  are  as  docile 
as  they  are  alert  and  good-tempered." 

I  could  only  admire.  It  is  true  we  were  dis- 
cussing a  select  troop,  who  enjoy  not  only  special 
pecuniary  advantages  but  also  quarters  called 
by  the  vulgar  name  of  barracks,  but  which,  for 
conveniences,  hygiene,  and  comfort,  far  surpass 
anything  that  our  wretched  budgets  ever  allow 
us  to  offer  to  the  French  recruits. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

BRAZILIAN  COFFEE 

|T  is  not  possible  to  speak  of  Brazil, 
still  less  of  Saint  Paul,  without 
the  coffee  question  cropping  up. 
The  fabulous  extension  in  recent 
years  of  the  coffee  plantations  and  the  crops 
that  have  permitted  the  present  extraordinary 
accumulation  of  wealth  have  drawn  the  attention 
of  the  whole  world  to  the  Brazilian  fazendas. 
Big  volumes  have  been  written  on  the  subject, 
and  I  gladly  refer  my  readers  to  them.  There  they 
will  find  all  the  figures  that  I  as  well  as  another 
might  quote,  but  I  adhere  to  my  intention  of 
leaving  to  statistics  their  own  special  eloquence, 
and  of  giving  here  an  account  of  only  such 
things  as  my  eyes  have  seen. 

Tf  you  want  to  inspect  the  Brazilian  coffee 
plantations  you  have  only  to  look  around  you. 

I  can  show  you  the  coffee-plant,  a  shrub  between 

389 


390         SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

three  and  five  yards  in  height,  which,  for  foliage 
and  manner  of  growth,  bears  a  strong  resem- 
blance to  box.  The  flower  is  very  like  that  of 
the  orange-tree,  but  with  a  more  subtle  scent. 
The  fruit,  or  "  cherry,"  red  at  first,  then  of  a 
brownish  colour,  contains  two  kernels.  The 
characteristic  feature  of  the  coffee-plant  is  to 
bear  flowers  and  fruit  at  the  same  time,  in  all 
stages  of  maturity,  when  once  the  first  flowering 
is  over,  providing  a  spectacle  that  interested  me 
greatly.  But  under  these  conditions  it  follows 
that  at  whatever  season  the  harvesting  may  be 
carried  out  the  crop  is  bound  to  be  very  unequal 
in  quality.  The  only  rational  way  to  meet  the 
case  would  be  to  have  several  harvests  each  year, 
but  the  cost  of  the  proceeding  would  not  be 
covered  by  the  difference  in  the  quality  obtained. 
For  this  reason  the  fazendero  generally  makes 
but  one  harvest  a  year,  plucking  at  the  same 
time  berries  of  varying  quality,  from  the  small 
rolled  moka,  which  is  found  on  all  plants,  to 
the  more  or  less  perfect  berries  destined  for  the 
average  consumer.  Not  that  the  fazendero  makes 
the  mistake  of  placing  on  the  market  a  mixture 
of  coffee  of  all  qualities.  When  the  berries  have 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  391 

been  dried  in  the  open  air  on  asphalt  floors 
they  are  sorted  by  machinery,  and  thus  seven 
different  kinds  are  obtained,  whose  value  nat- 
urally depends  on  their  quality. 

But,  unhappily,  the  canny  dealers  who  buy 
the  Brazilian  product  classified  in  this  way  have 
nothing  more  pressing  to  do  than  to  invent  fresh 
combinations,  tending  to  increase  their  own  pro- 
fits but,  at  the  same  time,  to  ruin  our  palates. 
Here  we  have  the  Bercy  mysteries  of  wine  adul- 
teration imported  into  the  coffee  market!  We 
need  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  to  learn  that 
to  some  palates  coffee  is  only  drinkable  when 
mixed  with  chicory,  with  burnt  fig,  or  roasted 
oats — the  last  more  especially  appreciated  by 
the  North  American  public.  The  best  of  it  is 
that  at  home  with  us  Brazilian  coffee  bears  but 
an  indifferent  reputation  among  the  epicures 
who  like  only  the  moka  of  Santos.  I  confess 
that  one  of  the  surprises  awaiting  me  in  Brazil 
was  to  find  their  common  coffee  infinitely  su- 
perior to  any  we  get  in  our  best  houses.  It  is 
a  light  beverage,  with  a  subtle,  soft  scent;  and, 
being  easily  digested,  it  does  not  produce  the 
usual  nervous  tension  that  causes  insomnia.  In 


392          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

the  hotels  and  railway-stations  of  Brazil  a  cup 
of  coffee  is  a  perfect  joy,  not  only  for  its  deli- 
cacy of  flavour  but  also  for  its  immediate  tonic 
effect,  and  cannot  be  compared  with  the  article 
offered  in  similar  places  at  home.  The  cups 
certainly  are  smaller  than  ours,  but  I  fancy  the 
average  Brazilian  drinks  quite  five  or  six  in  a 

1  day.  It  is  true  I  did  hear  "Brazilian  excita- 
bility "  put  down  to  coffee  intoxication,  but  one 
would  like  to  know  just  what  this  "  excitability  " 
amounts  to,  and,  besides,  I  am  not  clear  that 
alcoholic  countries  have  a  right  to  take  up  a 
critical  attitude  towards  coffee-drinkers.  Man 
in  all  parts  of  the  world  seeks  to  stimulate  his 
powers,  and  only  succeeds  in  obtaining  tempo- 
rary results — which  have  to  be  paid  for  later 
on  in  one  way  or  another,  either  by  a  reaction 
of  debility  or  by  hypersthenic  disorders. 

v  No  one  needs  to  be  astonished,  then,  to  find 
coffee  in  every  mouth,  both  as  a  drink  and  as 
a  topic  of  daily  conversation.  If  it  be  true  that 
coffee  has  made  Saint  Paul,  I  can  testify  that 
Saint  Paul  has  repaid  the  debt.  The  muscles 
and  the  brains  of  the  entire  population  are  de- 
voted to  the  same  object.  Enormous  sums  of 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  393 

money  are  invested  in  it,  large  fortunes  have 
been  made  in  it ;  and  when  the  famous  "  valorisa- 
tion "  was  operated,  it  looked  as  if  a  fearful 
catastrophe  were  preparing.  This  is  not  the 
moment  to  dwell  upon  the  economic  conditions 
of  coffee-growing  in  the  States  of  Saint  Paul, 
Rio,  and  Minas-Geraes.  I  shall  confine  myself 
to  recommending  the  reader  to  refer  to  the  ex- 
cellent book  that  M.  Pierre  Denis  has  published 
on  the  subject.1  As  for  the  "  valorisation,"  a 
stroke  of  unparalleled  audacity,  it  consisted  in 
forbidding  the  laying  out  of  new  plantations  at 
a  moment  when  the  market  was  menaced  with 
a  glut  that  seemed  likely  to  bring  about  a 
"  slump,"  and  in  forcing  the  State  of  Saint  Paul 
to  purchase  the  whole  of  the  surplus  stock- 
some  eight  million  bags — and  hold  it  until 
prices  had  recovered  their  tone,  when  the  article 
could  be  placed  gradually  on  the  market  at  a 
remunerative  figure,  the  scheme  to  be  executed 
by  means  of  a  financial  operation  the  details 
of  which  need  not  be  gone  into  here.  This  is 
a  piece  of  advanced  State  Socialism  which  looks 

1 "  Brazil,"   by   Pierre   Denis.     Translated  by   Bernard 
Miall.     London:     T.  Fisher  Unwin. 


394          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

like  succeeding,  contrary  to  the  expectations  of 
the  economists,  but  which  it  would  be  highly 
imprudent  to  repeat  on  any  pretext.  As  may 
be  imagined,  the  scheme  aroused  the  keenest 
opposition,  for  in  case  of  failure  the  risks  might 
have  amounted  to  some  hundreds  of  millions; 
but  it  sufficiently  denotes  the  extraordinary  mix- 
ture of  audacity  and  foresight  that  belongs  to 
Brazilian  statesmen.  The  perilous  honours  be- 
long more  especially  to  the  President  of  the 
State  of  Saint  Paul,  M.  Tibiriga,  and  to  Senor 
Augusto  Ramos,  a  planter  of  the  Rio  State. 

As  I  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  peripatetics 
of  this  social  drama  that  threatened  to  swallow 
up  both  public  and  private  fortunes,  I  naturally 
desired  to  visit  the  great  laboratory  of  the 
f agendas,  where  modern  alchemy  transmutes  into 
gold  the  red  earth  that  contains  the  mysterious 
diabase  which  is  the  essential  element  in  coffee- 
growing. 

A  member  of  the  Prado  family  kindly  offered 
to  show  us  his  fazenda  at  Santa  Cruz.  The 
beauties  of  the  landscape  were,  unhappily,  con- 
cealed beneath  a  haze  of  fine  rain,  but  man, 
alas!  had  done  worse — for  it  is  a  disastrous  in- 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  395 

troduction  to  the  glories  of  the  fazenda  to  cross 
smoking  tracts  of  forest  on  fire.  In  the  dis- 
tance huge  trees  were  still  blazing,  around  us 
was  a  waste  of  ashes  and  of  half-consumed 
boughs,  and  the  falling  rain  seemed  only  to 
quicken  the  dying  conflagration.  In  some  of  the 
great  green  boles  were  fearful  gaping  wounds 
through  which  the  sap  was  oozing,  while  some 
tall  trees  still  stretched  to  heaven  their  triumph- 
ant crown  of  foliage  above  a  trunk  all  charred 
that  would  never  sprout  again.  The  Brazilians 
contemplate  spectacles  such  as  this  with  a  wholly 
indifferent  eye,  and,  indeed,  even  with  satisfac- 
tion, for  they  see  in  the  ruin  only  a  promise  of 
future  harvests.  To  me  the  scene  possessed  only 
the  horror  of  a  slaughter-house.  At  least  we 
have  the  grace  to  hide  ourselves  when  we  mas- 
sacre innocent  beasts,  since  an  implacable  law 
of  Nature  has  decreed  that  life  can  only  be  sup- 
ported on  life.  Why  can  we  not  hide  in  the 
same  way  the  savage  destruction  of  the  beauties 
of  the  forest? 

Between  two  harvests  the  fazenda  is  a  scene 
of  quiet  repose.  We  witnessed  all  the  different 
operations — from  the  drying  to  the  sorting,  and 


396          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

to  the  final  departure  of  the  bags  to  the  Santos 
warehouses.  Although  our  tour  of  inspection 
was  arranged  by  the  proprietor  himself,  he  was 
only  present  on  our  account.  The  imposing 
mansion,  the  splendid  gardens — all  were  de- 
serted. The  Italian  colonist  has  taken  the  place 
of  the  slave.  The  former  master,  now  the  em- 
ployer, is  no  doubt  attracted  towards  the  city. 
The  overseer  looks  after  the  colonists,  who  are 
collected  into  a  village,  and  the  labour  is  organ- 
ised as  it  might  be  in  a  factory.  The  families 
seemed  prosperous  enough  beneath  their  coating 
of  original  dirt.  Only  babies  and  pigs  were  to 
be  seen — scarcely  distinguishable  the  ones  from 
the  others,  except  that  the  pigs  occasionally  wal- 
lowed in  a  chance  pool.  This  was  risky,  how- 
ever, for  the  terrible  jaws  of  the  crocodile  lie 
in  wait  on  the  banks  of  the  neighbouring  pond. 
The  coffee  plantation-  Jurnishes  occupation  for 
entire  families.  Men,  women,  and  children  bring 
equal  zeal  to  bear  upon  the  task  of  weeding, 
which  has  to  be  repeated  five  or  six  times  a 
year.  The  prolific  Italian  reaps  an  advantage 
from  the  size  of  his  family.  Moreover,  plots  of 
land  are  set  apart  for  him,  on  which  he  raises 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  397 

forage  for  his  cattle  and  the  maize,  manioc,  and 
black  beans  on  which  he  lives.  Often,  too,  he 
gets  permission  to  raise  his  private  crops  in 
the  open  spaces  between  the  coffee-plants.  All  the 
colony  is  afoot  when  the  time  comes  to  pluck 
the  berries.  The  Saint  Paul  growers  claim  that 
they  have  only  a  single  crop,  all  the  berries 
ripening  at  the  same  time.  I  saw  them  full  of 
blossom,  covered  thickly  with  bouquets  of  white 
flowers.  But  I  noticed  also  in  the  sorting-rooms 
a  great  irregularity  in  the  grains. 

We  walked  out  to  the  plantations — vast 
stretches  of  red  earth  in  which  the  shrubs  are 
planted  at  irregular  intervals.  Beside  the  path 
and  amongst  the  young  plants  there  were  great 
charred  branches  rotting  in  the  sun,  the  melan- 
choly remains  of  forest  monarchs  laid  low  a 
dozen  years  ago  and  awaiting  final  decomposi- 
tion. Here  and  there  colossal  tree-trunks  were 
still  erect,  though  hemmed  in  on  all  sides  by  the 
green  bushes  whose  monotonous  uniformity  tri- 
umphs over  the  dethroned  sylvan  power.  Occa- 
sionally some  forest  giant  that  has  escaped  by 
miracle  from  the  flames  raises  to  the  sky  its 
splendid  stature,  sole  evidence  of  past  splen- 


398          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

dours.  In  the  bare  flatness  of  the  immense  plain 
covered  with  the  low  coffee-plants,  where  no 
outstanding  feature  provides  a  scale  of  measure- 
ment, it  is  difficult  to  realise  the  real  dimensions 
of  these  relics.  It  is  only  when  standing  ac- 
tually beneath  a  bole  that  you  can  estimate  its 
proportions,  and  a  series  of  "  Oh's ! "  and 
"  Ah's ! "  of  amazement  burst  from  all  lips. 
One  of  these  trees,  whose  trunk  was  no  less  than 
seventy  metres  in  height,  had  a  girth  so  im- 
mense that  eleven  men  stretching  their  arms  in 
a  circle  round  it  could  not  entirely  span  it.  I 
was  told  that  it  was  worth  from  two  to  three 
thousand  francs.  There  would  be  some  expense 
attached  to  getting  it  to  the  place  where  it  was 
wanted. 

Still,  under  a  gentle  sprinkle  of  rain,  that  fell 
like  drops  of  clear  light,  we  proceeded  towards 
the  great  forest,  across  which  a  fair  carriage- 
road  has  been  made.  This  is  not  the  decaying 
forest  whose  timber  feeds  the  factory  furnaces, 
such  as  that  of  Santa  Ana  or  of  Lules.  This 
was  the  forest  that  had  stood  for  countless  cen- 
turies, as  is  shown  by  Titanesque  survivals  of 
those  unknown  ages,  but  it  remains  the  forest 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  399 

eternally  young,  its  vital  force  still  unimpaired 
by  time.  The  grand  architectural  lines  of  trunks 
and  boughs,  where  the  sunlight  plays  tenderly 
in  an  unending  scale  of  changing  tones  upon  its 
depths,  offer  a  feast  for  the  eyes.  Creepers  en- 
twine themselves  among  the  branches,  making 
a  thousand  fantastic  turns  and  twists,  while 
slender  stems  spring  like  fireworks  heavenwards, 
there  to  burst  into  bouquets  of  rich  blossom. 
Part  only  of  the  monstrous  tree-trunks  are  left 
visible.  Beneath  its  inextricable  tangle  of 
boughs  the  jequiticciba,  all  in  white,  its  spurs 
and  ramparts  high  enough  to  conceal  a  man, 
rises  high  above  the  rest — a  Tower  of  Babel 
that  has  escaped  the  destruction  of  the  others. 

Yet  at  our  feet  there  lay  a  colossus  that  fell 
only  three  days  ago,  and  seemed  to  point  to  the 
final  destiny  of  all  earthly  glory.  It  was  no 
tempest  that  had  thus  laid  it  low.  Healthy, 
straight,  and  tall,  it  had  fallen  before  it  could 
be  weakened  by  age,  simply  because  the  fatality 
of  the  action  of  underground  forces  crowding 
upon  it  from  all  sides  had  decreed  that  it  should 
end  then  and  there.  We  felt  it,  measured  it, 
and  examined  every  part  of  the  gigantic  corpse, 


400          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

and  not  one  was  inclined  to  quote  the  assassin 
of  the  Due  de  Guise — "  I  thought  it  larger." 
No.  Lying  here  at  our  feet  it  was  no  less 
amazing  in  its  might  than  it  had  been  in  its 
ephemeral  glory.  Even  in  the  beauty  of  death 
the  splendour  of  life  is  impressive.  In  the  clear- 
ings, where  the  slender  stems  of  tall  palms  sway 
their  parasol  tops  in  the  wind,  flocks  of  large 
parrots  were  busy  exchanging  opinions  as  to  the 
reason  of  our  presence;  and,  if  one  may  judge 
by  the  inflections  of  their  cries,  they  thought  it 
an  ill  omen.  In  the  patches  of  blue  sky  visible 
between  the  branches  we  could  see  them  swirl- 
ing overhead,  uttering  loud  curses.  I  had  been 
promised  a  glimpse  of  monkeys,  but  it  appears 
that  our  cousins  retreat  before  the  sound  of 
wheels,  and  only  tolerate — at  a  safe  distance — 
the  company  of  pedestrians.  I  thought  if  I 
separated  from  my  fellows  I  might  happen  on 
the  sight  of  one  or  two.  Failing  a  specimen 
of  the  Pithecanthropus  erectus  any  little  chap 
on  four  legs  would  have  found  a  brotherly  wel- 
come. Since  none  came,  why  not  go  after  them? 
But  walking  is  a  dangerous  pastime,  since  at 
every  moment  one  stands  a  risk  of  treading  on 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  401 

a  trigonocephalus  concealed  in  the  brushwood, 
here  as  high  as  a  man's  waist,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  fact  that  there  are  no  landmarks,  and  that 
before  I  had  taken  a  hundred  steps  I  should 
have  hopelessly  lost  my  way.  I  walked  about 
twenty  yards,  and  that  calmed  my  ardour.  I 
saw  neither  monkey  nor  snake.  I  was  not  in- 
consolable, however,  for  the  Brazilian  snakes  had 
no  mystery  for  me. 

I  saw  them  in  all  their  forms  collected  in  a 
charming  little  garden  which  Dr.  Vital  Brazil 
has  laid  out  expressly  for  them  at  Butantan. 
The  coral  serpent,  the  trigonocephalus,  the 
rattlesnake,  glide  about  the  grass,  climb  the 
bushes  whose  branches  effectually  conceal  them, 
or  seek  the  shelter  prepared  for  them  in  solitary 
corners.  But  for  the  absence  of  Mother  Eve 
one  might  fancy  oneself  in  Eden.  I  must  add 
that  a  moat  full  of  water,  with  a  wall  above, 
renders  impossible  the  machinations  of  the  Evil 
One;  but  I  confess  I  did  not  go  near  them,  even 
under  these  conditions.  Dr.  Brazil  showed  them 
to  me  in  his  laboratory,  preserved  in  transparent 
jars,  where  the  aggressive  force  of  the  creeping 

beast  is  revealed  by  means  of  sectional  surgery, 

26 


402  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

and  again  in  the  narrow  yard  of  his  menagerie ; 
here  one  alarming-looking  reptile  after  another 
was  fished  out  of  its  prison  on  the  end  of  a 
stick,  and  then  seized  by  the  throat  and  forced 
to  choke  up  its  venom  into  a  small  glass. 

You  may  suppose  that  in  all  this  Dr.  Brazil 
has  some  plan.  You  are  right,  and  it  is  worth 
explaining.  He  is  engaged  in  a  quest  after  a 
cure  for  snake-bites,  or  even  perhaps  for  some 
way  of  rendering  humanity  immune.  Brazil 
and  India  have  a  specialty  of  the  most  venom- 
ous of  snakes.  Dr.  Brazil,  who  spends  his  life 
in  their  company,  declares  that  even  the  most 
deadly  species  is  without  hostile  feeling  for  man. 
No  one  has  ever  been  attacked  by  a  snake.  His 
poison  (I  refer  to  the  snake)  permits  him  to 
paralyse  instantaneously  the  prey  destined  for 
his  food.  But  if  by  mistake  you  walk  on  his 
tail  he  is  carried  away  by  a  desire  for  reprisals. 
I  do  not  want  to  argue  about  it.  It  is  sufficient 
to  state  that  some  hundreds  of  Brazilians  and 
some  thousands  of  Indians  whose  pleasure  it  is 
to  walk  barefoot  in  the  forests  die  annually  from 
the  deadly  sting  of  this  philanthropist  whom 
they  have  unwittingly  annoyed,  notwithstanding 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  403 

the  humanitarian  opinions  of  snakes  in  general. 
This  is  the  evil  for  which  Dr.  Brazil  is  trying 
to  find  a  remedy. 

The  Butantan  Institute,  half  an  hour  distant 
from  Saint  Paul,  prepares  antidiphtheric  and 
antitetantic  serums,  but  its  specialty  is  the  anti- 
ophidic  serum.  Dr.  Calmette  was  the  first  to 
discover  a  method  of  procuring  immunity,  but 
the  serum  of  the  Lille  Institute,  prepared  from 
the  poison  of  Indian  cobras,  proved,  in  the  hands 
of  Dr.  Brazil,  powerless  against  the  Brazilian 
rattlesnake.  In  this  way  Dr.  Brazil  made  the 
discovery  that  each  South  American  species  had 
a  special  poison,  the  serum  of  which  took  no 
effect  on  other  poisons.  Accordingly,  at  Butan- 
tan three  different  serums  are  prepared — two  act 
on  special  species,  and  the  third,  called  "  poly- 
valent," is  used  in  cases  where  the  owner  of 
the  poison  has  omitted  when  stinging  his  victim 
to  leave  his  visiting-card  and  thus  establish  his 
identity — the  most  common  case.1  But  Dr. 
Brazil  is  not  satisfied  to  cure  or  render  immune 


1  The  reader  who  desires  further  information  will  find 
it  in  the  article  written  by  my  travelling  companion,  Dr. 
Segard,  on  the  Butantan  Institute. 


404          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

those  who  seek  ophidic  inoculation.  He  has  dis- 
covered a  superprovidential  serpent,  which,  hav- 
ing no  poison  of  its  own  and  being  invulnerable 
to  the  stings  of  its  kind,  renders  them  all  in- 
nocuous to  humanity  by  eating  them.  This  is 
the  friendly  mussurana.  They  offered  him  to 
me  for  inspection,  and  he  looked  neither  better 
nor  worse  than  the  trigonocephalus — I  should 
not  at  all  like  to  find  him  in  my  bed.  I  tried 
to  coax  him,  however,  to  munch  a  poisonous  com- 
rade. He  had  just  breakfasted,  and  wanted  only 
to  sleep.  Dr.  Pozzi,  luckier  than  myself,  had 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  him  swallow  a  certain 
jaracaca,  whose  slightest  caress  is  deadly.  The 
story  has  been  published  in  the  Figaro.  How 
must  we  regard  this  phenomenon  unless  as  a 
freak  of  Nature?  To  try  to  multiply  the  mussu- 
rana in  order  to  exterminate  rattlesnakes  seems 
to  me  a  dangerous  experiment.  Dr.  Brazil  has 
not  yet  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  single  young 
one,  and  for  my  part  I  cannot  yet  see  man  and 
the  mussurana  living  in  harmony  together. 

As  a  final  surprise,  we  were  informed  that  Dr. 
Bettencourt  Rodriguez  had  obtained  some  ex- 
cellent results  by  treating  yellow  fever  with 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  405 

antitoxic  serum.  The  most  certain  method 
seems,  however,  to  suppress  the  mosquito,  the 
propagator  of  the  disease,  as  Rio  and  Santos 
have  done. 

Santos,  now  a  healthy_dt^_is__an^  agreeable 
place  whose_onl^_mission  is  to  receive  tke  coffee 
from  Saint  Paul  and  export  it  to  all  the  con- 
tinents of  the  world.  We  had  a  brief  look  at 
it  as  we  passed,  and  saw  enough  to  wish  to 
return  there.  But  this  time,  instead  of  ap- 
proaching by  sea,  we  descended  upon  it  from 
the  plateau,  2500  feet  in  altitude,  which  shuts 
the  city  in  with  its  salt  marshes,  bounded  by 
mountain  and  sea,  using  the  famous  electric  rail- 
way which  is  celebrated  throughout  the  world 
for  the  picturesque  moving  panorama  it  offers 
to  travellers.  From  an  industrial  point  of  view 
the  port  is  not  equipped  to  cope  with  the  present 
traffic,  statistics  for  1908  showing  that  109  ships 
left  its  quays,  carrying  50  millions  of  kilo- 
grammes of  coffee — three  quarters  of  the  total 
output  of  the  world.  As  for  the  Brazilian 
floresta,  it  is  difficult  to  judge  of  it  at  a  dis- 
tance. I  was  placed  on  a  little  balcony  in  front 
of  the  motor,  between  the  Minister  of  the  In- 


406  SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

terior  of  Saint  Paul  and  Senor  Augusto  Eamos, 
and  thus  enjoyed  an  unrivalled  point  of  view, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  I  was  relieved  from 
feeling  any  excess  of  heat.  Mountains,  valleys, 
forest-clad  slopes — it  might  have  been  Switzer- 
land or  the  Pyrenees,  and  I  have  assuredly  no 
inclination  to  belittle  either.  Yet  what  a  dif- 
ference from  the  impression  produced  by  a 
walk  in  any  part  of  the  forest,  where  every  step 
lifts  you  to  an  ecstasy  of  admiration.  Shall  I 
confess  it?  The  railway  stations,  melancholy 
halting-places  on  the  mountain,  have  left  the 
best  souvenir  in  my  mind.  In  the  first  place, 
there  were  rows  of  cups  of  coffee  awaiting 
us  there — coffee  which  revives  and  refreshes  a 
traveller  and  perfumes  the  air  with  an  aroma 
unknown  in  Europe.  Then,  and  still  better, 
there  were  delicate  orchids  climbing  over  the 
verandas,  irradiating  showers  of  warm  light, 
and  left  there  out  of  respect  for  one  of  Nature's 
chefs  d'ceuvre,  for  they  ill  support  the  fatigue 
of  railway  travelling.  The  orchid  season  was 
just  beginning  when  I  left  Brazil.  What  I  could 
see  of  it  in  the  forest,  where  the  earth  was 
piled  up  with  all  kinds  of  decaying  vegetation 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  407 

which  the  marvellous  harvest  was  already  pre- 
paring, delighted  me,  for  such  beauty  gains  much 
from  being  viewed  in  its  natural  setting.  And 
in  the  desolate  railway  stations,  from  all  these 
wood  chips,  there  spring  sheaves  of  vivid  colours 
transforming  everything,  as  if  the  yawning 
rags  of  some  beggar  revealed  a  fabulously  rich 
treasure. 

For  the  Brazilian  flora  has  extraordinary  re- 
sources. When  I  crossed  the  Bay  of  Santos  to 
take  the  tramway,  which  runs  in  twenty  min- 
utes to  Guaruja  beach,  I  had  no  idea  that  the 
pleasure  of  the  journey  could  excel  that  of  my 
first  arrival.  The  Guaruja  beach  is  extremely 
fine.  It  lies  in  a  frame  of  rocks  and  forests, 
and  in  its  fine  sands  it  filters  the  high  waves 
that  rush  in  from  the  open  sea  in  magnificent 
cascades  of  fury,  which  suddenly  melt  away  into 
great  rings  of  pacified  foam.  But  how  find 
words  to  express  the  enchantment  of  the  road! 
The  low  shores  of  Santos  Bay  are  but  a  broad 
marsh,  where  a  frail  vegetation  rejected  by  the 
forest  has  full  sway.  On  both  sides  of  the  road 
there  is  an  ever-changing  sorcery  of  leaf  and 
blossom  in  the  most  lurid  of  hues.  Not  an  inch 


408          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

of  space  between  two  boughs  but  is  promptly 
filled  by  stem,  bud,  creeper,  parasite,  and  some 
kind  of  growth,  large  or  small.  Trees  that  are 
wasting  beneath  the  cruel  tendrils  eating  into 
their  flesh  don  a  robe  of  orchids.  Cannas  make 
patches  of  flaming  scarlet  in  the  thickest  part 
of  the  brushwood,  and  the  wild  banana-palm 
lifts  a  tall  head  from  above  the  two-cornered 
spirals  of  saffron-coloured  flowers,  which  gives 
an  effect  like  monstrous  crustaceans  warring 
with  the  branches — a  wild  scene,  in  which  it 
looks  as  if  all  the  forces  of  terrestrial  fecundity 
were  convulsed  in  one  impudent  spasm. 

Just  as  I  was  closing  my  visit  to  Brazil,  with 
great  regret  at  leaving  so  much  unseen,  I  had 
accepted  an  invitation  from  Senor  Teixeria 
Soares,  the  owner  of  a  fazenda  in  the  State  of 
Minas  Geraes.  Senor  Soares  is  the  manager  of 
a  railway  company  besides  being  devoted  to  land 
and  its  fruitful  joys.  Modest  and  quiet,  he  tries 
to  efface  himself  socially,  but  his  methodical  and 
clear  mind  is  attracted  by  every  big  problem, 
and  forces  him  into  the  front  rank  of  all  the 
different  enterprises  which  are  an  honour  to  his 
country.  I  was  greatly  impressed  by  the  way 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  409 

he  spoke  of  his  fazenda,  the  management  of 
which  he  has  confided  to  his  son.  It  was  easy 
to  see  that  he  had  centred  there,  if  not  the  best 
of  his  energy,  at  least  the  highest  pleasure  that 
can  be  derived  from  the  collaboration  of  man 
with  the  soil.  When  I  inquired  of  one  of  the 
fazenderos  whether  it  was  true,  as  Seuor  Soares 
boasted,  that  he  grew  the  best  coffee  in  Brazil, 
and  obtained  for  it  the  highest  market  prices, 
I  was  told  that  the  fact  could  not  be  disputed,  but 
that  Senor  Soares  had  the  reputation  of  spend- 
ing more  on  his  coffee  than  it  could  bring  in. 
I  could  not  help  fancying  the  words  covered  an 
acknowledgment  of  inferiority.  Idealism,  in 
agriculture  as  elsewhere,  is  apt  to  be  costly.  It 
may  not,  however,  exclude  the  active  qualities 
that  make  for  success.  SeSor  Soares  devotes 
himself  more  particularly  to  the  improvement  of 
coffee-plants  and  the  raising  of  new  species. 
Now  it  was  said  that  he  had  got  from  an  horti- 
culturist (of  Montmartre)  a  certain  plant  with 
whose  fame  the  world  would  shortly  ring.  He 
wanted  me  to  open  the  new  plantation,  and  as 
an  ex-Montmartrois,  I  certainly  could  not  refuse 
the  invitation. 


410          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  the  journey.  As  usual, 
there  were  miles  of  forest  destroyed  by  fire.  In 
the  villages  cabins  and  colonial  houses  were 
scattered  about  on  the  river  banks  amongst  great 
groves  of  trees.  The  Parahyba  made  amends 
for  the  melancholy  waste  of  the  land  by  its  in- 
numerable rocky  headlands,  its  tree-stems,  its 
islets  where  a  note  of  beauty  was  lent  by  the 
brilliant  plumage  of  birds. 

Small,  impatient  horses  were  waiting  for  us 
at  the  station,  and  seated  in  "  boggles "  that 
bounded  over  the  deep  ruts  of  the  road,  we 
passed  through  woods  where  large-leaved  creep- 
ers made  a  magnificent  stage-setting  which  only 
ended  in  the  acropolis  of  Santa  Alda.  This 
rustic  baronial  hall,  that  belongs  to  days  of 
slavery,  is  set  on  the  summit  of  an  eminence 
which  commands  a  tangle  of  valleys,  and  it 
offers  a  comfortable  simplicity  of  arrangement 
clothed  in  an  avalanche  of  flowers.  Wide 
verandas,  colonnades,  arches,  are  all  overgrown 
with  multi-coloured  bouquets  that  are  per- 
petually in  flower,  and  under  the  rays  of  the 
sun  distil  a  delicate  ambiance  of  scented  prisms. 
The  impression  is  one  of  charm  as  well  as  of 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  411 

force,  and  when  the  young  planter,  accompanied 
by  the  pleasant  queen  of  the  domain  with  her 
group  of  small  children,  is  seen  in  this  back- 
ground of  rustic  nobility,  you  are  conscious  of 
a  fine  harmony  between  man  and  Nature.  The 
strains  of  the  Marseillaise  burst  out,  as  we 
crossed  the  threshold,  from  instruments  con- 
cealed in  the  plantation.  It  was  a  greeting  to 
France  that  was  touching  enough  from  these 
Africans,  but  yesterday  ground  down  in  an 
odious  slavery  and  to-day  the  free  and  light- 
hearted  comrades  of  a  man  who  by  his  kindly 
ways  has  retained  the  little  colony  in  a 
place  where  the  associations  must  be  painful 
enough. 

The  attraction  of  the  gardens  is  too  strong 
to  be  resisted,  and  we  wander  out,  strolling 
amidst  the  clumps  of  tall,  brilliantly  coloured 
plants,  anon  gazing  in  rapt  admiration  at  the 
warm  line  of  the  distant  hills  which  hold  up 
against  the  gorgeous  crimson  of  the  sunset  a 
delicate  fringe  of  palm  foliage,  or  watching  the 
hummingbirds  which  chase  each  other  in  the 
branches  and  form  a  dancing  cohort  of  glowing 
brands.  When  night  fell  a  golden  light  per- 


412          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

vaded  the  atmosphere.  We  did  not  go  in  until 
we  had  taken  a  look  at  the  stud,  which  boasts 
some  of  the  finest  English  sires,  and  we  wound 
up  the  evening  by  an  amusing  performance  by 
an  agreeable  African  conjurer,  who  gave  an  ex- 
planation in  French  of  all  his  tricks  and  was 
clad  in  gentlemanly  attire — frock-coat,  white  tie, 
tan  shoes,  all  the  latest  style  of  the  Floresta. 

To-morrow,  a  good  hour  before  sunrise,  we  are 
to  start  for  a  last  visit  to  the  Brazilian  forest, 
and  although  a  heartless  doctor  has  forbidden 
me  riding  exercise,  I  have  not  the  strength  of 
mind  to  refuse  the  expedition.  They  set  me  ac- 
cordingly upon  a  plank,  having  a  high  wheel  on 
either  side,  and  soon  I  taste  the  joys  of  foot- 
ball, not  as  player,  but  as  ball,  leaping  with 
its  round  elasticity  heavenwards  after  a  vigor- 
ous kick.  And  the  pleasure  of  bounding  up- 
wards is  as  nothing  to  the  austere  sensation  of 
falling  back  again  on  the  implacable  boot  sole. 
In  this  fashion  I  was  rolled  through  a  series 
of  black  holes  which  I  was  told  would  appear 
in  the  sunlight  to  be  valleys.  As  luck  would 
have  it,  we  presently  came  upon  a  hill  that  had 
to  be  climbed,  and  my  courser  dropped  to  a 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  413 

footpace.  The  violent  shocks  of  the  earlier  part 
of  the  journey  now  gave  place  to  a  comparatively 
simple  sensation  that  suggested  an  anvil  beneath 
the  blows  of  a  hammer.  Then  the  day  broke. 
Seuor  Soares,  junior,  who  watched  my  progress 
from  the  back  of  a  tall  steed,  pointed  out  his 
first  experiments  with  rubber-plants  and  with 
cocoa,  and  described  his  coffee-gardens,  of  which 
I  had  already  seen  some  specimens.  The  suf- 
ferings of  the  lower  part  of  my  person  now  gave 
way  to  the  admiration  of  the  higher  as  I  men- 
tally compared  the  wretched,  stunted  lives  in 
our  cities  with  the  wide  freedom  of  existence 
led  by  this  high-spirited  youth  who  was  wrestling 
out  here  in  the  glorious  sunshine  with  the  ex- 
uberant forces  of  a  fruitful  Nature  which  he  is 
certain  to  master  in  time.  O  you,  my  French 
brethren  who  in  alpaca  coats  sit  eternally  on 
your  stools,  bent  over  useless  documents,  know 
that  the  earth  has  not  yet  exhausted  her  gifts, 
learn  that  there  is  another  life,  free  from  the 
anaemic,  cramping  condition  which  you  know ! 
This  thought  was  still  in  my  mind  when  we 
turned  our  reins  across  the  moors  that  led  to 
the  coffee  plantations,  where  dried  palm-leaves 


414          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

protect  the  young  shoots  from  the  heat  of  the 
sun,  and  where  the  new  species  derived  from  a 
plant  grown  on  the  sacred  hill  of  Montmartre- 
en-Paris  is  being  carefully  cultivated.  Come  out 
here,  young  men  in  shiny  threadbare  sleeves  who 
make  your  way  homewards  nightly  to  the  close 
dens  around  the  Sacre  Cceur ;  come  and  see  these 
black  coffee-planters — men,  women,  and  children 
— living  close  to  Nature  on  the  outskirts  of  civili- 
sation, and  compare  your  own  wretched  quarters 
furnished  by  Dufayel  on  the  "  hire "  system, 
that  has  cost  you  such  anxious  moments,  with 
the  blissful  nudity  of  these  cabins,  and  tell  me 
where  you  see  the  worst  form  of  slavery,  here 
amongst  the  newly  emancipated  Africans  or  at 
home  under  your  own  roofs. 

The  forest!  the  forest!  I  have  seen  it  once 
and  again,  but  I  could  never  tire  of  it,  and  my 
great  regret  is  that  I  cannot  come  back  again 
to  it.  The  sun  has  made  its  sudden  appearance 
on  the  scene,  glowing  like  a  violent  conflagration, 
and  a  thousand  voices  from  the  winged  popula- 
tion of  the  woods  have  greeted  him,  singing  the 
joy  of  light  returned.  Everywhere  is  the  same 
eternal  hymn  to  life.  I  was  shown  a  small  bird 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  415 

whose  female  dances  round  her  spouse  as  soon 
as  he  begins  to  pour  forth  his  love  serenade  in 
joyous  notes.  Blue  and  yellow  toucans  dazzle 
us  with  their  splendour.  Valleys  filled  with 
colossal  ferns  open  out  in  the  daylight  their 
unexpected  vistas  of  a  delirious  vegetation.  I 
ask  after  the  monkeys.  Alas !  they  do  not  leave 
their  retreats  before  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon. They  only  arrive  for  five  o'clock  tea ! 
But  for  no  inducement  would  they  leave  their 
dressing-rooms  until  the  sun  has  gone  down  to 
the  horizon.  When  you  have  once  seen  the 
heart  of  the  forest  wilderness,  where  the  same 
luxuriant  life  in  manifold  manifestations  is  to 
be  seen  at  your  feet  and  in  the  high  tree  and 
hilltops,  where  profusely  flowering  creepers 
wind  themselves  around  every  twig  and  bough, 
placing  these  forest  kings  in  tender  bondage, 
you  will  not  blame  the  monkeys  for  being  con- 
tent to  remain  in  their  sumptuous  domain.  I 
was  shown  fruit  half  eaten,  the  refuse  of  a 
monkeys'  restaurant.  I  can  well  believe  it.  A 
wood-cutter  told  me  he  was  attacked  yesterday 
by  a  dozen,  who  were  so  pertinacious  that  he 
had  to  defend  himself  with  his  stick.  Thus, 


416          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

though  I  never  saw  a  monkey,  I  did  see  a  man 
who  had  seen  one. 

At  last  we  reached  a  waterfall  which  was,  it 
appears,  the  limit  of  our  excursion.  On  our 
way  back  we  came  to  a  difficult  crossing,  and 
as  my  horse  was  even  more  exhausted  than  my- 
self by  the  rough  treatment  he  had  given  me, 
he  was  taken  out  of  the  shafts,  and  a  swarm 
of  some  eleven  negroes  pulled  and  pushed  me 
along,  with  bursts  of  laughter  at  their  perform- 
ance. But  for  their  chuckles,  I  might  have  fan- 
cied myself  some  Roman  victor  arriving  in 
triumph.  It  lasted  only  ten  minutes,  but  I 
should  have  been  covered  with  confusion  had 
some  chance  cinematograph  been  on  the  spot  to 
reproduce  the  scene.  This  misfortune  was 
spared  me.  Thanks  to  the  fact,  I  take  the 
pleasure  of  holding  myself  up  to  ridicule. 

The  ceremony  of  inaugurating  the  Montmartre 
coffee-plant  took  place  half-way.  The  operation 
is  less  difficult  than  might  be  thought.  I 
climbed  up  a  slope  from  whose  top  I  could  see 
rows  of  holes,  with  heaps  of  coffee-plants,  their 
roots  carefully  wrapped  up,  and  each  in  a  small 
basket  by  itself,  lying  at  intervals  over  the  pre- 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  417 

pared  ground.  One  of  these  baskets  with  its 
young  green  stem  was  offered  to  me,  I  stuck  it 
in  the  first  hole  that  came  handy,  and  thus  the 
glory  of  Montmartre,  like  that  of  Brazil,  reached 
its  apogee. 

I  do  not  know  what  will  become  of  my  coffee 
enterprise  at  Santa  Alda.  It  is  more  certain 
that  Senor  Soar&s  has  begun  to  manure  his  land 
instead  of  merely  scattering  the  shells  of  the 
berries  over  it.  It  is  possible  that  the  Brazilian 
fazendcros  will  be  a  little  worried  by  this  ex- 
ample, seeing  in  it  only  a  way  of  increasing 
expenses.  But  the  established  fact  that  Seuor 
Soar&s's  coffees  are  in  great  demand  seems  a 
curious  coincidence,  for  no  one  can  suppose  he 
amuses  himself  in  this  way  for  the  fun  of  losing 
his  money.  When  I  left  Santa  Alda,  I  carried 
with  me  a  pretty  collection  of  canes  made  from 
the  finest  woods  produced  on  the  fazenda,  and 
on  board  the  Principe  Umberto,  which  brought 
me  back  to  Europe,  I  discovered  a  chest  of  coffee, 
which  enabled  me  to  give  my  kind  hosts  the 
authentic  testimony  of  a  consumer. 

The  Principe  Umberto  is  in  every  way  like  the 
Rcgina  Elena.,  as  indeed  she  ought  to  be  con- 


418          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

sidering  her  origin.  There  are  the  same 
comfortable  arrangements,  the  same  excellent 
service,  the  same  Latin  courtesy  from  the  officers. 
We  had  two  adventures  on  the  voyage.  A  mad- 
man threw  himself  into  the  sea  one  night.  The 
siren  shrieked  the  alarm.  A  boat  put  off  but 
returned  after  a  fruitless  search.  I  was  told 
that  this  was  a  typical  "  return  "  case.  On  the 
way  out  Hope  holds  us  by  the  hand.  To  make 
one's  way  back,  after  disappointments,  is  for 
human  weakness  perhaps  a  sore  trial.  We  do 
not  all  get  to  Corinth.  Let  us  pity  those  who 
make  this  an  excuse  for  never  setting  out.  The 
commissary  told  me  the  story  of  one  third-class 
passenger,  all  in  rags,  who  deposited  with  him 
when  he  came  on  board  the  sum  of  150,000 
francs.  There  are  evidently  compensations. 

The  second  adventure  was  more  general  in 
interest.  It  took  the  form  of  a  strike  among 
the  coal-heavers  of  St.  Vincent.  The  harbour, 
with  its  border  of  bare  rock,  lay  still  and  de- 
serted. A  few  saucy  niggers  dived  for  our  edifi- 
cation after  coins  flung  from  the  ship.  But  that 
was  all,  neither  white  nor  black  man  appeared, 
for  the  order  had  been  given  that  no  one  should 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  419 

come  off  to  meet  us  and  we  on  our  side  were 
forbidden  to  land.  We  need  not  be  astonished 
if  the  first  lesson  learnt  by  the  blacks  from  their 
white  "  superiors  "  is  that  of  violence  preached 
by  grandiloquent  politicians,  trembling  inwardly 
with  fear,  but,  none  the  less,  tenacious  in  their 
inglorious  arguments.  The  negroes  have  the  ex- 
cuse of  having  reached  our  civilisation  late  in 
the  day.  Are  we  too  exigent  when  we  implore 
the  whites  to  preach  by  example? 

We  coal  at  Las  Palmas,  the  capital  of  the 
Grand  Canary.  As  other  boats  are  there  ahead 
of  us,  we  are  obliged  to  spend  an  entire  day  in 
harbour.  We  land,  therefore.  The  "  Happy 
Isles "  have  inherited  from  the  ancients  such 
a  reputation  that  some  disappointment  is  inevi- 
table. Seen  from  the  sea,  the  Canaries  show 
only  a  cluster  of  arid  rocks  devoid  of  vegetation. 
Las  Palmas  is  a  picturesque  town  whose  palms 
can  but  inspire  an  amiable  benevolence  in  peo- 
ple who  have  seen  Brazil.  The  country  is  purely 
African  in  character.  Square  white  houses  with- 
out windows,  banana-groves  down  in  the  valleys, 
hills  of  calcined  stones.  After  an  hour  or  two 
along  a  road  that  is  thick  with  dust,  you  reach 


420          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

a  pretty  restaurant  standing  in  a  garden  whose 
exotic  vegetation  would  be  charming  if  one  had 
never  seen  the  Riviera.  The  canary  of  the 
islands  that  is  said  to  abound  revealed  itself 
to  me  in  the  guise  of  a  vulgar  chattering  sparrow. 
Yet  the  boatmen  who  boarded  our  ship  offered 
authentic  canaries  in  cages  hung  from  a  long 
rod,  but  I  was  told  they  had  been  procured  from 
Holland.  These  birds  have  a  particularly  sweet 
song,  and  they  sing  to  order,  oddly  enough.  It 
is  enough  to  shout  to  the  seller,  "  Your  canary 
does  not  sing,"  for  the  birds  to  burst  into  a 
flood  of  trills  and  turns.  It  is  the  triumph  of 
a  songster  with  the  imitative  faculty.  Buyer 
and  seller  both  are  taken  in  and  the  greatest 
serin  (canary,  also  used  to  mean  "duffer")  is 
not  the  one  you  might  think. 

Before  I  take  my  leave  of  the  reader,  I  want 
to  say  a  word  for  the  creation  of  a  line  of  fast 
ships  making  the  journey  between  France  and 
South  America.  So  little  space  remains  to  me 
that  I  cannot  treat  the  subject  as  I  should  like. 
The  case  is  simple;  formerly  the  French  line 
was  very  popular,  but  it  has  allowed  itself 
to  be  entirely  outdistanced  by  other  companies 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  421 

who  have  built  more  rapid  boats  while  we  con- 
tinue to  send  our  old  vessels  over  the  sea.  The 
contract  held  by  the  Messageries  Maritimes  ex- 
pires in  1912.  By  some  culpable  negligence  no 
steps  have  been  taken  to  improve  the  service 
or  even  to  continue  it.  The  matter  cannot  rest 
there.  If  we  are  to  enlarge  our  dealings  with 
South  America,  it  is  of  capital  importance  to 
France  to  have  a  service  of  rapid  boats  fitted 
up  on  the  most  comfortable  of  modern  lines. 

I  shall  venture  to  make  a  brief  extract  here 
from  a  report  that  I  got  my  friend  Edmond 
Thery  to  make  out  for  me,  since  his  authority 
in  matters  economic  is  universally  known. 

For  the  last  twenty  years  there  has  been  a 
prodigious  increase  of  production  and  public 
wealth  in  the  two  Americas.  This  fact  ac- 
counts for  the  enormously  increased  proportion 
of  travellers  to  Europe  drawn  from  North 
America,  Mexico,  Brazil,  the  Argentine,  etc. 
The  proof  is  that  the  luxurious  hotels  spring- 
ing up  anew  almost  daily  in  Paris  and  on  the 
Riviera  to  cater  for  this  class  of  customer  are 
always  crowded. 

Brazil  and  the  Argentine  Republic  have  more 


422 


SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 


especially  profited  by  the  rise  in  value  of  their 
land.  In  the  course  of  the  last  ten  years,  from 
1900  to  1909,  their  working  railways  have  gone 
up  from  14,027  kilometres  to  19,080  in  Brazil, 
and  from  16,563  to  25,508  kilometres  in  the 
Argentine  Kepublic. 

These  13,998  kilometres  of  new  lines  (46  per 
cent,  increase  since  1900)  have  opened  the  door  to 
agriculture,  cattle-breeding,  forestry,  in  immense 
and  hitherto  desert  regions,  and  the  results  of 
this  may  be  traced  in  the  increase  of  their  foreign 
trade : 

FOREIGN  TRADE  OF  BRAZIL  AND  THE  ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC  ] 
IN  TEN  YEARS. 


Brazil  — 
Imports 

1900 

Millions  of 
Francs. 

1909 

Millions  of 
Francs. 

Total  increase  in  1909. 

c 
Millions    of 
Francs. 

^ 

Per  Cent. 

634 
836 

935 
1,606 

301 

770 

47 
92 

Exports 

Total  

1,470 

2,541 

1,071 

73 

Argentine  Republic  — 
Imports  

567 
773 

1,514 
1,987 

947 
1,214 

167 
157 

Exports  

Total     . 

1,340 

3,501 

2,161 

161 

BRAZILIAN  COFFEE  423 

Thus  during  a  short  period  of  ten  years  the 
exports— i.  e.,  the  surplus  of  home-grown  articles 
after  supplying  the  needs  of  the  country — have 

increased  in  value  by  770  millions  of  francs,  §Q „ 

per  cent.,  for  Brazil,  and  1214  millions,  or  157 
per  cent.,  for  the  Argentine  Republic.  As  for 
the  total  value  of  the  foreign  trade  of  the  two 
countries,  it  has  risen  1071  millions  of  fraacs 
for  the  former  and  2161  millions  for  the 
latter:  in  other  words,  an  average  of  107  mil- 
lions of  francs  per  annum  for  Brazil  and  216 
millions  for  the  Argentine. 

These  startling  figures  show  clearly  enough 
the  importance  of  the  economic  advance  the  two 
countries  are  making,  and  we  may  say  that 
French  capital  has  built  up  this  prosperity. 

We  ought  now  to  seek  to  retain  the  advantages 
to  be  drawn  from  our  financial  intervention  in 
the  new  Brazilian  and  Argentine  undertakings, 
and  one  of  the  best  ways  to  attain  this  end  is 
to  make  sure  of  rapid  means  of  communication 
between  France  and  the  two  great  South  Ameri- 
can Republics,  which  shall  be  up-to-date  in  every 
way  and  luxurious  enough  to  induce  Brazilians 
and  Argentinos  to  come  to  Europe  and  return 


424          SOUTH  AMERICA  TO-DAY 

to  their  own  country  in  French  boats  rather  than 
in  English,  German,  or  Italian  vessels. 

Such  means  of  communication  are  already  in 
existence  between  France  and  the  United  States, 
but  are  wholly  lacking  in  the  direction  of  Brazil 
and  the  Argentine  Kepublic. 

The  French  boats  which  call  at  these  stations 
have  been  a  long  time  in  use,  and  their  fittings 
are  in  no  sense  in  conformity  with  modern  ideas 
of  luxury  such  as  the  class  of  travellers  to  which 
I  have  already  alluded  invariably  expects.  As 
for  their  average  speed,  it  certainly  never  goes 
beyond  fourteen  knots,  for  they  make  the  jour- 
ney from  Bordeaux  to  Kio  de  Janeiro,  with  the 
different  scheduled  stops  by  the  way,  in  a  mini- 
mum of  seventeen  days,  and  if  they  go  on  as 
far  as  Buenos  Ayres,  in  twenty- two  days. 

The  distance  between  Bordeaux  and  these  two 
ports  being  4901  and  5991  nautical  miles  respec- 
tively, it  is  only  necessary  to  have  boats  capable 
of  doing  twenty  knots  as  an  average,  or  twenty- 
three  miles  an  hour,  for  the  journey  to  Eio  de 
Janeiro  to  be  performed  in  ten  days  and  five 
hours,  and  that  to  Buenos  Ayres  in  twelve  days 
fifteen  hours. 


BRAZILIAN  COFFEE 


\2tf 


There  is  nothing  to  add  to  this  clear  statement 
of  the  case. 

'And  now,  how  can  I  resist  the  temptation  to 
draw  some  sort  of  conclusion  from  these  ram- 
bling notes,  made  with  the  sole  desire  to  make 
use  of  the  knowledge  acquired  for  the  benefit 
of  French  extension,  and  this  in  the  interest  of 
humanity  at  large?  In  every  calling  there  is 
but  one  road  to  success — work.  When  Candide 
returned  from  Buenos  Ayres,  he  brought  back 
from  his  travels  the  lesson  that  we  must  work 
in  our  gardens.  Since  his  days  our  gardens  have 
grown  considerably,  and  since  we  are  ourselves 
the  first  elemental  instrument  for  all  work,  the 
first  condition  of  improvement  must  be  the  im- 
provement of  the  material.  Therefore  let  us 
work. 


INDEX 


Aborigines  of  Patagonia,  n. 

52-54 

Agricultural  Society  of  Bue- 
nos Ayres,  the  shows  of, 

78-79 
Agriculture : 

Waste  entailed  by  sys- 
tem in  vogue  in  the 
Pampas,  364 

Wasteful  Brazilian  meth- 
ods, 364-66,  376-78 

See  Cattle,  Cereals, 
Coffee,  Horses,  Pampas, 
etc. 
Alcorta,     Sefior     Figueroa, 

President  of  the  Argen- 
tine Republic,  180 
Algeciras  Conference,  67 
Alienism,    see    Open    Door, 

The 
America,  South: 

Impressions  of,  iii 

Cities  of,  vii,  viii 

Architecture,  vii 

Races  of,  viii 

Early  culture,  ix 

People  of,  unjustly  ridi- 
culed, 62-63 

Produce  of,  73-75 
America,  United  States  of, 

64 

Americans,    South,    charac- 
teristics of,  11-12 
Anarchists,  85 

Russian,  86 


Oppressive   measures 

against,  88-89 
Argentine    Exposition,    69- 

70 

Argentine    Republic,     The, 
18-20 

Arrival  in,  27-28 

Mate,  trade  of,  45-46 

Agricultural  produce,  75- 
76 

Foreigners  in,  81 

Patriotism,  91-93 

Powers    of    assimilation, 
94-97 

Officials,  113-14 

Types  and  manners,  142- 
74 

Women  of,  151-56 

Exaggerated    convention- 
ality of  society,  155-56 

Girls  of,  158-59 

Fathers,  160 

Gambling,  161-62 

Land  speculation  in,  162 

Cookery,  173-74 

Politics,  175-203 

Parliament,  184-86 

The  Executive,  188-89 

The  Press,  191-92 

Society,  201-3 

The  Pampas,  204-32 
Argo,  Alpha  of,  16 
Aristocracy  of  Brazil,  355- 

56 

Armadillo,  The  (tatou),  114 
Army,  The  Brazilian,  342 
Arrow-heads,  Primitive,  w. 

53-56 


427 


428 


INDEX 


Arts,  The,  in  the  Argentine, 

58-62 
Asylums : 

Excellence     of,     in     the 
Argentine,  114 

For  aged,  123 

For  widows,  124 

For  lunatics,  124-35 
Avenida  Central,  Rio,  325 


B 


Bacteriological        research, 

345-47 

Ball,  Official,  at  Rio,  359 
Band,  Oriental,  18 

See  Uruguay. 
Bangu,   Factories  &t,  364- 

Battleships,  Extensive  pur- 
chases of,  291 

Belgrano,  General,  n.  59 

Betting   in   the   Argentine, 
166-67 

Black  Pot,  The,  14 

Bon  Vista,  368 

Botanical  Gardens: 

Of  Buenos  Ayres,  38-40, 

Of  Rio,  368 
Bouvard,  M.,  57 
Brazil,  144,  (226-425) 

Recent  troubles  in,  178 

Domestic  architecture,  n. 
318,  321 

French  culture  in,  331 

Products  of,  333 

Politics,  337 

Federal  Government,  342 

Saint  Paul,  341-42 

Society,  352-63 

Planters,  356 

Women  of,  358 

Agricultural  methods, 
364-66 


See     C  o  ff  e  e,    Rio    de 

Janeiro,  Saint  Paul 
Brazil,   Dr.,   his   antitoxins 

for  snake-bites,  403-4 
Buckle,    his    prophecy    re- 
lating to  Brazil,  143-44 
Buenos  Ayres,  26-141 

Elevators  of,  26-27 

City,  28 

Architecture,  29 

Docks,  32-33 

Slaughter-houses,    34-35, 
74-79 

Excessive  population,  85 

Schools,  115-16 

Asylums  and  prisons,  98- 

140 

Buenos  Ayres,  Fair  of,  79 
Butantan      ( Sero-therapeu- 

tical  Institute),  403 


Cabred,  Dr.,  alienist,  128- 

29 

Calval,  321 
Campo,  The  Argentine: 

Men  of,  207-9 

Drought  in,  213-14 

Fauna  of,  220-21 

Morals  of,  225 
Canaries,  The,  420 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  5 
Cattle: 

Exaggerated    sums    paid 
for,  74,  163 

Herds   of   the   Argentine 
Pampas,  206-9 

Decimated     by     drought, 

213-15,  246,  264 
Cedar,  False,  76 
Cereals,  74,  75,  260 
Cerro,  The,  24-25 
Church,  The,  in  Brazil,  374 
Cinematograph,  The,  198 


INDEX 


429 


Clover,  Giant,  75 

Coal,  Absence  of,  in  the 
Argentine,  31 

Coaling  at  St.  Vincent,  10 

Cobras,  Las  (island),  Mu- 
tiny on,  335,  342 

Coffee    (389-94) 
The  shrub,  389-90 
Harvest,  390 
Valorisation  of,  393 
Plantations,  394-99 

Columbus,  iii-v 

Conscription  as  affecting 
the  French  in  South 
America,  97-99 

Cookery  in  the  Argentine, 
173-74 

Corcovado,  369-72 

Creole  balls,  231 

Creole  beauty,  A,  279-82 

Cruz,  Dr.  Oswaldo,  Valua- 
ble medical  services  of, 
343-48 


Dances  of  the  Pampas,  321 

Dancing,  285 

Democracy,      M.      Clemen- 

ceau's  lectures  on,  200 
Divorce  in  Uruguay,  299 
Dolphins,  13 


E 


Education : 

In  the  Argentine,  114-18 
In  Uruguay,  312-14 

Emigrants : 
Italian,  2,  7 
Yearly,  2 
Syrians,  7 

Emigration  to  Brazil  pro- 
hibited on  account  of 
abuses,  366 


England: 

At  International  Exposi- 
tion of  Buenos  Ayres, 
69-70 
Her    industrial    role    in 

South  America,  70 
English : 

In  the  Argentine,  100 

In  Patagonia,  105-6 

As  builders  of  railways. 

183 
Estancias: 

Of  the  Argentine,  75 
Of  the  Pampas,  224,  235- 

47 
Estancierq,  The,  237 

His  habit  of  enlarging  his 

holdings,  237-38 
His  life,  238-44 


Faction  fights  disappear- 
ing, 177 

Family  life  in  the  Argen- 
tine, 150-51 

Fauna  of  the  Campo,  220- 
21 

Fazenda,  The  Brazilian, 
356,  408-17 

Fazendeiro,  The,  356 

Ferri,  Prof.  Enrico,  107-8 

Finger-print  system,  89-90 

Flax,  74 

Flying-fish,  14 

Fonsica,  Marshal  Hermes 
da,  President  of  the  Bra- 
zilian Republic,  328 

Forest : 

The      South      American, 

276-78  , 

The  Brazilian,  366 
Destruction    of,    376-78, 
414-15 


430 


INDEX 


Forestry,     Need     of     com- 
petent, 77 
France : 

At  the  International  Ex- 
position of  Buenos 
Ayres,  70 

Failure  of  her  capital- 
ists to  realise  their  op- 
portunity in  South 
America,  70 

Military   law   of,   as   af- 
fecting the   French   in 
South  America,  96-99 
French  colony,  The,  in  the 
Argentine,  93,  94-97 
As  engineers,  183 
French  school  at  Tucuman, 

287 

French    theatre    at    Tucu- 
man, 286 

French  Military  Mission  to 
Saint-Paul,  329,  386 


G 


Game  on  the  Pampas,  247- 
52 

Gaucho,  The,  73,  207-9, 
223-24,  228-30 

Genoa,  scenes  in  harbour,  1, 
3 

Germans  in  the  Argentine, 
100 

Gramophones,  225 

Groussac,  P.,  57 

His  adventures,  100-3 
As  a  Spanish  author,  102 
Founds     the     public     li- 
brary, 102 
Personality,  102-5 
Groussac,  de,  101-3 

Guanaco,  The,  221 

Guiraldes,  Sefior,  City  Lieu- 
tenant of  Buenos  Ayres, 
112 


Half-breeds,   Life   of,   271- 

75,  334 
Harbour  works,  183 

See  Rosario,  Montevideo 
Hares  on  the  Pampas,  247 
Harvesters,  Italian,  84 
Hilleret,  M.,  sugar-planter, 

270-71,  284 
Horse-racing,  165-68 
Horses : 
At    the    Buenos     Ayrea 

Horse  show,  74 
Of    the    Pampas,    207-8, 

217-18 

Curious    power    of    find- 
ing   their    way    home 
after  revolutions,  228- 
29 
Methods  of  breaking, 

241-43 
Hospitals : 

Excellence  of,  114,  121 
The  "  Open  Door  "  for  in- 
sane patients,  103,  124- 
32 

Rivadavia  Hospital,  122 
Hotels,  170-71 
House      of      Independence, 

The,  286 
Huret,  Jules,  257 


Idealism,  Latin,  63-65 

Immigration,  84-85 

Indian  blood  in  the  Argen- 
tine, 111,  145-47 

Indians,  South  American, 
n.  53,  n.  56 

Individualism,  character- 
istic of  South  American 
constitutions,  190 


INDEX 


431 


Insurrections,  Danger  of,  in 

the  Argentine,  179 
International  Exposition  at 

Buenos  Ayres,  69-70 
Isabella,  the  Infanta,  Visit 

of,  110-11 
Italians  in  Brazil,  355,  396- 

97 


Jacques,  outlaw  and  educa- 
tionalist, 101 

Japanese  in  Brazil,  348-49 

Jefferson,  64 

Jettatore,  Belief  in,  181 

Jockey  Clubs  of  Buenos 
Ayres,  163-66 


La  Plata,  17,  25,  56-8 
Lakaluf  Indians,  n.  55 
Land: 

Increase    of   value    upon 
cultivation,  75 

Speculation  in,  161 
Las      Cobras,      Island     of, 

mutiny  on,  335,  342 
Larretta,  E.  R.,  novelist  and 

Argentine     Minister     in 

Paris,  56 
Law  of  Literary  Property, 

199-200 

Law  Schools,  120 
Liguria,  4 
Literature  of  the  Argentine, 

n.  58 

Llamas,  221 
Locusts,  219 
Lules,  284 

M 

Manguinhos  Institute  (sero- 

therapeutical),   345-47 
Mar  del  Plato,  37 


Martinette,  The,  248-52 
Mate,  44-6 

Secret    of    growth    from 

seed,  45 

Meat,  frozen,  79 
Medicine,  120-22 

French    culture    of    doc- 
tors, 123 

Protective       regulations. 
123 

Sero-therapeutical    Insti- 
tute, 345-47 
Middle    classes,    Abstention 

of,  from  politics,  188 
Military     service,     French 

and  Argentine,  96-98 
Minas    Geraes,    battleship, 

mutiny  on,  335,  342 
Miscegenation,  147-48,  334 
Monroe  Doctrine,  66-67 
Montevideo,  18 

Docks,  20 

City,  21 

Architecture,  21-22 

Harbour,  292 

Moreno,  Moriana,  n.  59,  102 
Morra,  14-15 
Motor-cars : 

In  the  Campo,  245 

Shooting  from,  248-49 
Mussurana,   a   cannibal 

snake,  404 


Ombu-tree,  The,  40-42,  219- 

20 

Onas  Indians,  n.  55 
Onelli,    Seiior,    Director   of 

Buenos   Ayres   Zoological 

Gardens,  48-53 
"  Open  Door,"  The,  asylum 

for  insane,  124-35 
Ornevo  (cardinal  bird),  221 
Ostrich,  The,  51,  221 
Owl,  The  prairie,  223,  255 


432 


INDEX 


Palermo    (race-course),  38, 
53-54 

Pampas,  The: 
Life  on,  204-32 
Enormous  herds  of,  210- 
12 

Pampero,  The,  17,  73 

Pan-American        Congress, 
65-67 

Parana,  the,  26,  260 

Partridges,  248-51 

Patagonians,  Account  of,  by 
Senor  Onelli,  n.  52-56 

Pec/anha,  President,  332 

Pellegrini,  President,  an  in- 
soumiSy  99 

Peiia,  President,  107,  182 

Penguins,  50 

Petropolis,  373-74 

Photographers  in  the  home, 
198-99 

Police,  Argentine,  89 

Politics,  176-77,  189 
In  Uruguay,  300-1 
In  Brazil,  336-39 

Polyvalent  serum  for  snake- 
bite, 403 

Prado  fazenda,  The,  394-95 

Press,   Power  of  the,  191- 
92,  193-98,  304 

Prisons,  137-41 

Protectionism  in  the  medi- 
cal world,  123 


Quebracho,  32,  40 
Quintano,    the    late    Presi- 
dent, 181 

R 

Rabat,  a  method  of  hunting 
hares,  248 


Race-course,  Palermo,  38 
Railways,  183,  422 
Rastaquoere,  The,  62 
Reds  of  Uruguay,  The,  178 

Garibaldi's      shirt      bor- 
rowed from,  n.  300 
Refrigerator  industry,  The. 

79,  216 

Revolution,  The  French,  x. 
Revolutions : 

South    American,    things 
of  the  past,  179 

Method   of   raising   men, 
227,  266 

In  Uruguay,  300 
Rio  Bay,  321-27 
Rio  Branco,  Baron  de,  328 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  322-51 

Aspect  of  city,  325-29 

From  Corcovado,  371 
Roca,  President,  102 
Rosario : 

Cattle  show  at,  79,  259 

Docks,  262 

Deficiency  of  schools,  263 
Rosas,  dictator,  n.  59 


S 


St.  Lazare,  prison,  113 

St.  Paul  (Sad  Paolo) ,  379-81 
Government  of,  382 
City,  384 

St.  Paul  (Sab  Paolo) ,  bat- 
tleship, mutiny  on,  335, 
342 

St.  Vincent,  coaling  station, 
8,  9,  418 

St.  Vincent,  Brazil,  320 

San  Martin,  59 

Santos,  Shipments  of  coffee 
at,  319,  398-407 

Santos  Bay,  407 

Santos  River,  317 

Sarmiento,  n.  59,  101 


INDEX 


433 


Schools : 

In  the  Argentine,  115-18 

Secondary,  119 

Training   College   of    St. 

Paul,  385-87 
Sculpture,     Abundance     of 

mediocre,    in     Buenos 

Ayres,  58-60 
Sera: 

Preparation  of,  345-46 

Snake  antitoxins,  402-3 
Sheep,  in  Patagonia,  106 
Shipping,    lines    to     South 

America,  421,  423-24 
Siesta   unknown  to   Brazil, 

320 
Slavery: 

In    Brazil,   Abolition    of, 
353-54 

Evils  and  advantages  of, 

358 

Snakes,  of  Brazil,  401-4 
Scares,    Senor,    his    model 

fazenda,  408-9 
Southern  Cross,  The,  16 
Spain,  influence  of  her  tra- 
ditions, 109-11 
Sport  in  the  Pampas,  248- 

55 

Stone  Age,  The,  n.  53-54 
Sugar-cane,  Fields  of,  273 


Tchuleches  Indians,  53 
Telegraphy,  Wireless,  9 
Thays,  M.: 

Director  of  Parks,  etc.,  at  j 
Buenos  Ayres,  38-39 

His  proposal  for  national  ! 

park,  39,  44-55 
Theatre  at  Rio,  361 
Therezopolis,  375 
Tierra   del   Fuego,   Natives 

of,  n.  55 


Timber: 

Lack    of,    in    Argentina, 
32,  76 

Improvident     destruction 

of,  76 
Trade    of    Argentina    and 

Brazil,  422-23 
Training  College,  St.  Paul, 

385-87 
Tucuman,  268,  286-87 

The  French  at,  286-88 

U 

Uruguay,  18,  (289-315) 
Revolutions  in,  19 
President  of,  20,  23-24 
Morals  of,  22 
Whites  and  Reds  of,  178 
Curious    domestic    archi- 
tecture, 295 

Laws  (reformed) ,  298-99 
Revolutions,  300 
Whites  and  Reds,  300 
Insecurity  of  life  during 

political  disputes,  301 
The  Press,  304 
Idealism,  308-9 
Uruguay  Club,  The,  303 
Uruguay  River,  The,  26 


Valorisation  of  coffee,  393 
Viana,  Island  of,  348-50 
Voltaire,  played   900  miles 

from  the  coast  in  1780, 

ix.,  333 
Voyage,  Impressions  of  the, 

5-10 

W 

White,  Mr.  Henry,  57 
Whites,   The,  of   Uruguay, 
178,  300 


434 


INDEX 


Williman,  Senor,  President 
of  Uruguay,  23-24,  297 


Yellow  fever,  at  Santos,  and 
extirpation  of,  319 


The  work  of  Dr.  Cruz  at 

Rio,  343-45 
Yerba-mate,  44-46 


Zoological  Gardens,  Buenos 
Ayres,  48-49 


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